The governments of Finland and Sweden are asking to join NATO, abandoning their long tradition of neutrality. But what do European citizens really think of NATO? That we need to stay there or is it an alliance that no longer has a reason for being? To find out what European citizens think, Europe for peace promotes a survey and invites everyone to join and disseminate it as much as possible, especially in view of the next NATO Summit that will take place in Madrid on 29 and 30 June to decide the strategy of the Atlantic Pact for the next decade.
According to the “NATO 2030” report drawn up by experts appointed by Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the Alliance, the Alliance will have to adapt to an international environment characterized by an “aggressive” multipolarity, in which Russia and China are seen by NATO as the main competitors, a situation that over time could lead to a bipolar confrontation between the United States and China.
In opposition to NATO’s aggressive policy, pacifist and nonviolent organizations will gather in Madrid in those same days in a counter-summit, anticipated on June 26 by a march from Atocha to Plaza de Espana, which will discuss the dissolution of NATO, which, from being a defensive alliance, it has actually become a threat to world peace and security, as demonstrated by the failures of interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and the paroxysmal run-up to the production and deployment of traditional and nuclear weapons.
In this regard, in June the first conference of the signatory parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held in Vienna, an international treaty signed by the United Nations already in 2017 and entered into force on January 22, 2021, to which they have adhered to date. 86 countries.
The conference will be preceded by a two-day forum of ICAN, the coalition of NGOs that promote the implementation of the treaty. Unfortunately, Italy has already decided that it will desert the conference, although some NATO member countries (Germany and the Netherlands) will participate as observers.
It still makes sense to talk about competition and deterrence through nuclear weapons in international relations or it makes more sense to think about a change of course, a transition to a collaborative and peaceful multipolar world that can address the enormous challenges we are already facing ( climate change, forced migration, hunger, to name a few)? That is why we would like to know what the citizens of the European Union think about it, not their governments.
It is with this objective that Europe for Peace promotes the NATO survey and invites all citizens to join and disseminate it as much as possible.
