The results of NATO’s annual survey, which also surveyed citizens of Finland and Sweden, the alliance’s new member states, “clearly” show that public support for NATO is extremely strong on both sides of the Atlantic, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, stressing apparently alluding to Donald Trump’s controversial claims about US disengagement that “only 13%” of people in the US would vote against NATO, News.ro reports.

“If the vote were held today, the vast majority of citizens of the allied countries would vote for NATO,” said Jens Stoltenberg. “More than 80% of our citizens believe that North America and Europe should continue to work together for the sake of our common security,” the head of NATO said on the occasion of the presentation of the Alliance’s 2023 report. He added that “in the United States, only 13% would vote against,” and emphasized that these results show that “in the Alliance, NATO support remains reliable.”

In the case of Romania, according to the report, 82% of citizens would vote in a referendum for their country to remain in NATO and 9% would vote against, NATO has one of the most favorable figures in Romania. Only one country out of 32 NATO countries has a 100% favorability index for the Alliance: Albania.

The NATO secretary general’s remarks come as former US President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president in November, caused a political firestorm last month after he said at a campaign rally that he would not jump to the defense of a NATO country that did not pays its share of defense costs and would even invite Russia to attack it. Trump’s former and current advisers later suggested that if he were to return to the White House, the former president could demand the revocation of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty or even the US withdrawal from the military alliance if not all members pay up. their obligations.

The comments of the former American president caused a violent reaction, including from Jens Stoltenberg. While he has also advocated increasing military spending to the NATO target of at least 2% of GDP, Stoltenberg said such comments could put the lives of the alliance’s soldiers at risk and assured that the US would remain a loyal ally even if Donald Trump returned to the White House. home

For the first time in 2024, Europe reached the target of 2%.

In the annual report presented on Thursday, the NATO Secretary General detailed the activities and achievements of the alliance during 2023. He welcomed the fact that 2023 marked the ninth consecutive year of increased investment in Europe and Canada, meaning “defense spending increased by 11%, an unprecedented share.”

Europe’s allies will invest a total of $470 billion in defense in 2024, representing 2% of their combined GDP for the first time, Stoltenberg said. “This year, two-thirds of allies will reach the 2% goal, compared to only three allies in 2014,” he stressed.

Stoltenberg said that at the summit in July, which will mark NATO’s 75th anniversary and will be held in Washington, the allies are expected to take additional steps to support Ukraine, strengthen and provide NATO defense resources and deepen partnerships around the world.

What NATO has done for Ukraine

In 2023, allies continued to provide Ukraine with an unprecedented level of support. Stoltenberg noted that “for the first time, a number of allies have deployed, including long-range systems, Storm Shadow missiles from the UK and SCALP missiles from France, and the allies have agreed to send F-16s.”

He added that several allies have already signed bilateral security agreements with Ukraine.

“Ukrainians do not lack courage. They are running out of ammunition. This is a critical moment, and allowing Putin to win would be a grave historical mistake. We cannot allow authoritarian leaders to get what they want by force,” Stoltenberg pleaded.

At the Vilnius summit in 2023, the Allies agreed on a new Defense Production Action Plan to accelerate production, strengthen engagement with industry and improve interoperability. The Secretary General emphasized that “since then, NATO has agreed contracts worth tens of billions of dollars for ammunition and key assets.” In addition, NATO further deepened its relations with its Indo-Pacific partners, as well as with the European Union.

With the accession of Finland and Sweden, “NATO is now bigger and stronger”, reports the 2023 activity report.

____

• Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro