European support for Nato rises

European public support for Nato increased substantially over the past year, even before Russia’s military incursion last month into Georgia, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.

The annual Transatlantic Trends survey also showed that 47 per cent of Europeans thought US relations with Europe would improve if Barack Obama were to win November’s US presidential election, against only 11 per cent in the event of victory for John McCain.

Some 57 per cent of Europeans agreed Nato was essential to their country’s security, an increase of 4 percentage points since 2007. There was a particularly marked rise in support for Nato of 11 points in Spain and seven points each in France and Germany.

Kurt Volker, US ambassador to Nato, attributed the alliance’s rising popularity to last April’s Bucharest summit, when Nato leaders refocused their operations in Afghanistan.

The emphasis now is on reconstruction work, humanitarian assistance, anti-drug efforts and other social and economic programmes as well as on the military campaign against the Taliban.

"All these things gave a clear image to the public and got Nato more support," Mr Volker told a news conference.

Experts involved in the survey, conducted by the US German Marshall Fund think-tank and Italy’s Compagnia di San Paolo foundation, said European support for Nato was likely to have risen still more after Russia’s assault on Georgia.

However, only 43 per cent of Europeans supported combat operations against the Taliban, compared with 76 per cent of Americans, the survey showed.

Mr Obama was the clear European favourite in the election campaign, with 69 per cent viewing him favourably against only 26 per cent for Mr McCain. Mr Obama’s highest ratings of 85 per cent were recorded in France and the Netherlands.

The survey’s authors cautioned: "If Senator Obama is elected, Europeans may expect him to act more multilaterally than any American president is likely to act."

Some of the survey’s most striking results concerned Turkey, where 48 per cent said their country should go it alone in international affairs. Only 20 per cent supported co-operation with the EU, and only 3 per cent backed co-operation with the US.

Some 55 per cent of Turks – and 57 per cent of EU respondents – agreed that Turkey has such different values it is not really part of the west.