Survey: Most Romanians think NATO will defend county in the event of a conflict in Ukraine

A total of 70.3% of the respondents to a survey carried out by INSCOP Research think NATO will defend the country in the context of an increased risk of conflict in Ukraine.

The survey, “Public distrust: West vs East, the rise of the nationalism in the era of disinformation and fake news,” was conducted by INSCOP Research in partnership with Verifield. The study was commissioned by the think tank STRATEGIC Thinking as part of a research project supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and financed by the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation via the True Story Project.

Of those surveyed, 76.2% said Romania should not exit NATO, and 74.7% agree with the statement that “the presence of US military bases in Romania would help defend the country in the event of a foreign aggression.” A total of 20.6% disagreed with the statement.

At the same time, 72.6% of the respondents believe the EU should have its own army to defend member states, while 20.8% think the opposite.

According to 77% of the respondents, the West (meaning EU, US, NATO) is the direction Romania should take when it comes to political and military alliances, while 10.4% think Romania should look to the East (namely Russia, China).

When it comes to the trust in other countries and international organizations, 60.6% of the respondents trust NATO (compared to 47% in September 2021), 55.9% the EU (compared to 42% in September 2021), and 51.8% Germany (compared to 45.8% in September 2021). Of those surveyed, 50% trust the United States (vs 40.3% in September 2021), and 38.5% France. The trust in Russia and China is below 20%: 18% said they trusted Russia (vs 16.2% in September 2021), and 17.2% China (vs 13.5% in September 2021).

With respect to the trust in international personalities, 34.4% of those surveyed said they trusted US president Joe Biden (compared to 25.9% in September 2021), 33.1% trusted Moldova’s president Maia Sandu (compared to 28.8% in September 2021), and 24.8% French president Emanuel Macron. Russian president Vladimir Putin had the trust of 23.3% of respondents (compared to 21% in September 2021), while 19.3% trusted Hungarian PM Victor Orban (compared to 16.4% in September 2021).

The survey was carried out between January 11 and January 18, using the surveying technique CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing), among 1,162 respondents, representative for significant socio-demographic categories (gender, age, occupation) for the adult population of Romania, aged 18 and over. The maximum acceptable error is ± 2.9% at a 95% confidence level.

The survey is available