Donald Trump’s many plays against allied NATO countries have launched a discussion about the United States under his leadership would respect the Article 5 of the Natosta on mutual defense guarantees.
The discussion hardly disappeared when he stated last week that the United States will not defend NATO countries that will not increase its defense costs enough.
This seems to have an effect on the Swedish population’s confidence in the country in the West.
When asked how much confidence one has for the United States to defend a member country in NATO in the event of a military attack within the next two years, a total of 70 percent state that they have very little or quite little confidence that this would happen. Of these, 29 percent have very little confidence. Only 3 percent say they have great confidence.
– It’s remarkable. It means that confidence that NATO’s article five would work in practice is low, at least in the view of the United States, says Per Söderpalm, opinion officer at Veriance.
In all the groups surveyed and regardless of gender, age or party affiliation, more people have little confidence that the United States would come to a NATO country’s defense. But there are differences.
Among other things, 79 percent of women state that they have little confidence, while the corresponding figure for men is 61 percent. The same goes for the opposition parties’ voters where 80 percent have little confidence. For the voters of the time parties, the proportion is 59 percent.