The reputation of the United States as a leading global power has suffered badly in France and Germany due to Washington’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll by the German Marshall Fund and the Bertelsmann Foundation showed on Monday, on the eve of President Joe Biden’s trip to Europe.
The survey results saying Biden had not won back the standing of the U.S. as it was before COVID-19 struck with one-third to half of Europeans no longer thinking the U.S. is the leading global power, while the perception within the United States is that U.S. influence abroad has risen.
French and German views of U.S. influence in the world hasn’t been changed in the first three months of the Biden’s administration and the numbers are in line with the 2020 survey results, fallen by about 10 points from the pre-pandemic numbers, to the advantage of China.
The survey shows that the U.S. is seen as a reliable partner by only 51% of Germans, 60 percent in France, 67% in Britain and 76 percent in Poland, while in Turkey that number is below 25 %. The data is bit different when it comes to U.S. being seen as the most influential player with 63 % of Turks I Swedes, 62 % of Poles and 58 percent of the British being under such impression.
The survey was conducted online between March 29 and April 13, and sampled 1,000 adults in each of the 11 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK and the US.
Biden starts his first European tour as president on Wednesday to attend G7, NATO and EU summits, facing the challenge of repairing transatlantic ties damaged by his predecessor Donald Trump, who undermined European faith in Washington by withdrawing from international agreements and with his sharp criticism of NATO.
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