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GERMANS AGAINST NATO PERMANENT BASES IN EASTERN EUROPE: POLL
June 25, 2014 - 13:07 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Nearly three quarters of Germans would oppose NATO
having permanent NATO military bases in eastern Europe as requested
by Poland and the Baltic states because of a perceived threat from
Russia, reveals to a new poll published on Wednesday, June 25,
according to Reuters.
Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - all former members of the
Soviet bloc - have been among the loudest voices calling for tough
sanctions on Russia for the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and
have expressed concern about their own borders.
They count on the Western military alliance for support and have
called for a bigger and in some cases a permanent NATO presence.
Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas told Reuters last week that
Western allies must "open your eyes" to the threat.
Russia is an important trading partner for Germany and the source
of more than a third of its gas - a relationship that has encouraged
caution in Chancellor Angela Merkel's response.
But Germans are also have a broader distaste for overseas military
actions, as demonstrated by a separate Forsa poll for Stern magazine
in which 71 percent of people opposed sending German troops abroad
even when diplomacy or sanctions fail.
NATO has tripled the number of fighter jets based in the Baltics and
NATO's top military commander, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove,
said last month NATO would have to consider permanently stationing
troops in eastern Europe.
But some NATO allies argue that permanent basing of large numbers
of troops in the former Soviet bloc is too expensive, not a military
necessity and needlessly provocative to Moscow.
Poland wants NATO to base troops on its territory but Moscow says
this would violate Russia's 1997 agreement with NATO.
In the Forsa poll for the Internationale Politik magazine's latest
edition due on Friday, 74 percent of people surveyed were against
the idea while only 18 percent supported it. Opposition to permanent
NATO bases in eastern Europe was higher in former communist eastern
Germany, Forsa said.
June 25, 2014 - 13:07 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Nearly three quarters of Germans would oppose NATO
having permanent NATO military bases in eastern Europe as requested
by Poland and the Baltic states because of a perceived threat from
Russia, reveals to a new poll published on Wednesday, June 25,
according to Reuters.
Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - all former members of the
Soviet bloc - have been among the loudest voices calling for tough
sanctions on Russia for the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and
have expressed concern about their own borders.
They count on the Western military alliance for support and have
called for a bigger and in some cases a permanent NATO presence.
Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas told Reuters last week that
Western allies must "open your eyes" to the threat.
Russia is an important trading partner for Germany and the source
of more than a third of its gas - a relationship that has encouraged
caution in Chancellor Angela Merkel's response.
But Germans are also have a broader distaste for overseas military
actions, as demonstrated by a separate Forsa poll for Stern magazine
in which 71 percent of people opposed sending German troops abroad
even when diplomacy or sanctions fail.
NATO has tripled the number of fighter jets based in the Baltics and
NATO's top military commander, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove,
said last month NATO would have to consider permanently stationing
troops in eastern Europe.
But some NATO allies argue that permanent basing of large numbers
of troops in the former Soviet bloc is too expensive, not a military
necessity and needlessly provocative to Moscow.
Poland wants NATO to base troops on its territory but Moscow says
this would violate Russia's 1997 agreement with NATO.
In the Forsa poll for the Internationale Politik magazine's latest
edition due on Friday, 74 percent of people surveyed were against
the idea while only 18 percent supported it. Opposition to permanent
NATO bases in eastern Europe was higher in former communist eastern
Germany, Forsa said.