Americans favour ties with Asia over Europe

US: Americans value their longstanding bonds with Europe, but give even greater weight to the country’s deepening ties to Asia, according to a new poll taken as the rising prominence of the nations of the East alters global geopolitics.

The poll by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) which surveyed the attitudes of Europeans toward Americans, and vice versa, found that 52 percent of respondents polled in European Union member states believe that ties to the United States are most important for their national interests.

By contrast, 51 percent of respondents in the United States said US ties to Asian countries like Japan, China and South Korea take precedence over the European Union.

“We may have arrived at a watershed moment when the United States looks west to the Far East as its first instinct. This is a moment when transatlantic leaders need to step up and lead,” said Craig Kennedy, president of the GMF, whose mandate is to foster US-Europe ties.

The respondents hailed from America and from 12 European nations: Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The poll, taken as policy makers try to assess how Asia’s rise will impact relations between partners on both sides of the Atlantic, found Asia to be especially important for young Americans. About three in four respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 said Asia is the more important region for US national interests, while only about one in three Americans over 64 thought so.

Washington, Thursday, AFP