NATO has a special relationship with countries far away from Europe: Australia, Japan, South Korea. They have joint projects and programmes which are being implemented without these countries becoming members of NATO.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
NATO's essentially run by the United States.
It is possible there will be much less support for NATO because there is a lot of identification of the United States with NATO.
Following the end of the Cold War, there was much discussion concerning the point of NATO. In the event, it was reinvented as a means of reducing Russia's reach on its western frontiers and seeking to isolate it. Its former East European client states were admitted to NATO, as were the Baltic states.
I think NATO is a Cold War product. I think NATO historically should have shut up shop in 1990 along with the Warsaw Pact; unfortunately, it didn't.
We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.
We also have a real opportunity to join NATO.
So seven new countries, three of them formerly part of the Soviet Union, and the others part of the Warsaw Pact, will become full members of NATO next year.
Russia is a part of European culture. Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.
NATO remains the cornerstone of Atlantic security.
Our policy is European and Euro-Atlantic integration. There is no substitute for NATO.