By IRNA
Paris : As leaders of NATO prepare to gather in Bucharest next week, sentiment is widespread in its six largest countries that the United States should cooperate with Russia over missile defenses in Eastern Europe.
That view was expressed in a poll conducted by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24.
The US plan has created a clear divide across the Atlantic:
pluralities in every European country oppose it, while Americans favor it, 49-25 percent.
Opposition is particularly high in Germany (71 percent against, 19 percent for), Spain (61-19) and France (58-22).
Putin has denounced the US plan as destabilizing and urged that the two countries cooperate. When asked about the notion of a common antimissile plan between NATO and Russia, at least a plurality of respondents supported the idea in all six countries: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and even the United States.
The survey found widespread ignorance of the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Nonetheless, a majority in each country said the alliance was still needed. Even in Spain, where opposition was highest, people favored keeping NATO by 51 percent to 21 percent.
Notions varied considerably, however, about just what threats NATO faces.
No country’s citizens ranked military threats at the top of the list; in fact, most Europeans pretty much ignored them, with fewer than 10 percent citing them in France, Italy and Spain. In the United States, however, 23 percent cited military threats as one of the two their country should most protect against, about double the number who cited climate or the ecology.
As for the future of Europe’s defense, opinion was divided on establishing a European Union military force. Majorities support the idea in France, Italy and Spain, while Britons favor the idea by 41 percent to 33 percent and Germans divided evenly on the question.
Americans also support the idea, 39 percent to 24 percent, though more than one-third were undecided.
Americans and Europeans also generally favored the idea that France should rejoin NATO’s military structure, with one exception: the French themselves, who were roughly split as one-third in favor, one-third opposed, and one-third undecided.