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The United States is a reliable partner, and its international image is largely positive. That was the summary of the latest Pew Research Center poll released on June 22.
Meanwhile, another poll conducted in the Balkans showed that America is viewed very positively in this region, with Bosniaen and Kosovo, which remain as the most pro-Western countries. Both polls show that America’s global image is improving.
Center survey Pew, performed in 17 countries, predicts good times for the US and the West. America is viewed favorably by 61 percent of respondents from February to May this year. President Joe Biden is seen positively by 60 percent of respondents.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the view of NATO is positive and growing, with an overall favorability of 66 percent. In fact, over the past 18 months, 2 events have improved America’s international image: the start of President Joe Biden’s term to the White House in January 2021, and the US-led response to help Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion in February of this year.
Immediately after the publication of the findings of the Research Center Pewthe results of a survey conducted in the region by the International Republican Institute (IRI), showed similarly that America’s image is positive in one corner of Europe: the Balkans.
Conducted earlier this year and before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the results of the survey are reassuring. Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia remain pro-American and pro-Western. An ethnic divide shows that Bosniaks and Albanians are America’s main allies in the region.
80 percent of Bosniaks surveyed in Bosnia had a positive opinion of the US, compared to 36 percent of Serbs and 59 percent of Croats. Meanwhile, 89 percent of Bosnian Serbs had a favorable opinion of Russia.
In North Macedonia, 80 percent of Albanians had a favorable view of the US. In Kosovo, the results are even more surprising: 94 percent of Kosovo Albanians had a favorable view of the US. President Joe Biden remains a popular figure in the Balkans.
As a senator in the 1990s, he was a strong supporter of Bosniaes and Kosovo, and supported in every case the strong engagement of the USA in the Balkans. His eloquent rhetoric is still fondly remembered. 69 percent of Bosnians had a favorable view of Biden, while only 15 percent of Bosnian Serbses had the same view.
On the contrary, 83 percent of Bosnian Serbs had a positive opinion of the president Russian Vladimir Putin. In Bosnia, a majority favors a pro-Western foreign policy, with 42 percent supporting.
Asked what Bosnia’s foreign policy should bees, 58 percent of Bosniaks were in favor of a pro-EU and pro-Western policy, while Croats 52 percent. In Kosovo, the results were even more supportive of the West, with 84 percent of Albanians in favor of this course.
Similarly, in North Macedonia, 68 percent of Albanians are in favor of a pro-Western approach. In Bosnia, overall support for full NATO membership is solid at 51 percent, an increase of 3 percent from 2020. Bosnia’s membershipes in NATO is supported by Bosniaks (69 percent) and Croats (77 percent), while it is supported by only 8 percent of Bosnian Serbses.
In Kosovo, 82 percent of Albanians are in favor of the country’s full membership in NATO, in accordance with the country’s strong commitment to Western institutions. What the IRI survey showed is that Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia are pro-American and pro-NATO.
This has been the case since the US-led interventions in the Balkans in the 1990s. Even as anti-Americanism spread globally after the US invasion of Iraq, support for America was generally strong in Bosnia and Kosovo, and continues to this day. day.
But America’s work in the Balkans remains unfinished. Over the past 15 years, the US has shifted its focus elsewhere, and this power vacuum has been felt in the region, and iteRussia and China have tried to fill it. The European Union tried to increase its influence, but to no avail.
The Balkans currently remain in limbo, as Bosnia and Kosovo remain outside the European Union and NATO, and without a strong connection to Western institutions. By investing politically, militarily and financially in the reconstruction of Bosniaes and Kosovo, the US must not allow interlopers like Russia and China to undo the achievements of more than 2 decades of peace building.
The Biden administration must redouble its efforts to integrate Bosnia into NATOen and Kosovo. With North Macedonia already in NATO, the acceptance of these two countries in the alliance would firmly anchor this unstable region to the West.
NATO expansion in the Balkans would ensure security and stability for Bosniaen and Kosovo. Now that EU membership is essentially out of the question for both countries after the recent European Council summit, the need to join NATO is even more important. The acceptance of the two Balkan states into the alliance is a very effective way to ensure that the Balkans do not remain as a “powder keg” in Europe.
By Hamza Karcic
top channel
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