NATO members hold positive view of bloc, but Zelenskyy's approval slides

As US prepares to host a key NATO summit in Washington DC, marking the 75th anniversary of the military bloc's founding, the trans-Atlantic alliance continues to be seen favourably in many member nations including in Türkiye, but confidence in the Ukrainian president is down in Europe and the US, according to a survey.

Washington DC-based think-tank, Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey in 13 NATO member nations, said the median of 63 percent of adults across countries surveyed have a positive opinion of NATO, while 33 percent have a negative opinion.

"But there are big differences by country: The shares of adults with a positive view of NATO range from 91 percent in Poland to 37 percent in Greece," Pew said.

The American think-tank found that favourable views of NATO in Türkiye have doubled since 2019 and a majority of people in Hungary, Poland and Türkiye see NATO membership as important for their country’s security, "though Poles and Hungarians are more likely than Turks to say this."

"People who support the current government in their country are more likely to have a favourable view of NATO in nine of the 13 countries surveyed," the survey found.

Pew said that its study found that in countries like Spain, Sweden, UK and US, positive views of NATO have ticked down slightly since 2023.

Türkiye joined the alliance in 1952 and also boasts of having the second-largest army among member states after the United States. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to attend NATO leaders summit in Washington from July 9 - 11.

Confidence in Zelenskyy

Pew also asked people in 35 countries how they see the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country he heads.

The survey found that confidence in Ukrainian leader has plummeted in many countries since 2023, with the drop largest in Poland and Hungary.

"Confidence is highest in Sweden, where eight-in-ten have confidence in him. About two-thirds or more in Canada, the Netherlands and the UK also express confidence. However, six-in-ten or more in Greece, Hungary and Italy do not have confidence in Ukraine's president," Pew said.

In several European countries, people who have favourable views of right-wing populist parties are less likely to have a positive view of Zelenskyy, Pew said.

"In Germany, for example, supporters of Alternative for Germany (AfD) are about half as likely as those who do not support AfD to express confidence in the Ukrainian leader (31 percent vs. 61 percent). In some cases, the pattern is reversed: Spanish supporters of the right-wing populist party Vox are more confident in Zelenskyy than non-supporters," the study found.

In Hungary and Türkiye, the most common observation is that their country is providing about the right amount of support to Ukraine, 61 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

In the US, Pew found that 31 percent of Americans say their country is providing too much support to Ukraine, 24 percent say it is not providing enough and 25 percent say it is giving about the right amount.

"The US is the only place surveyed where there are significant differences on this question by ideology: 51 percent of Americans who place themselves on the right say the US is providing too much support to Ukraine, compared with only 13 percent among those on the left," the research found.

Ukraine has remained hugely dependent on the western funds to fight Russian troops ever since Russian ordered what it says is a "military operation" in Ukraine. Kiev and its allies call it invasion and have vowed to upset Moscow's territorial ambitions in the country.

On Wednesday, Reuters news agency citing diplomats said that NATO allies have agreed to fund military aid for Ukraine with $43 billion in 2025.

It is a part of a broader package that NATO leaders will agree for Ukraine when they gather for the summit in Washington.

NATO summit, however, comes in the shadow of criticism of the bloc from Republican presidential contender Donald Trump who has promised to end Russia-Ukraine war in one day if elected.

Trump advisors have reportedly proposed a plan that would stop military assistance to Ukraine unless Kiev agrees to hold peace deal with Moscow.

Views on Russia and Putin

Views of Russia and Putin remain largely negative across 35 countries polled, Pew said in its study, adding, in a handful of countries, "opinions of Russian and Putin have warmed since we last surveyed there."

"Argentines, for example, have grown 11 percentage points more favourable toward Russia and 9 points more confident in Putin over the past year," it said.

Malaysia is the only country where a majority express a favorable opinion of Russia, the think-tank found in its study, "with nearly six-in-ten Malaysians saying this."

In several European countries, Pew research found that people who have a favourable view of a right-wing populist party in their country see Russia and Putin "more positively than do people with unfavourable views of those parties."