Favourable view of US slides among Indians: Survey

New York: Favourable views of the US in India have slid since last year amid President Donald Trump’s actions and rhetoric against the country, according to an international survey.

The survey by the US-based Pew Research Centre this year showed that 45 per cent of Indians had a favourable view of the US, down from 54 per cent last year.

Among Indians, 31 per cent had a negative view of the US, the report published this week said.

Not surprisingly, only 18 per cent of Indians approved of Trump’s tariff policies, which hit India by as much as 50 per cent before the US Supreme Court blocked them.

On confidence among Indians that Trump would do the right thing in world affairs, there was a sharp drop from 52 per cent last year to 39 per cent this year.

Thirty-six per cent of Indians said they did not have confidence in Trump on this score this year.

Among world leaders, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin received the highest level of confidence among Indians at 51 per cent.

Among the other leaders in the survey, 34 per cent of Indians had confidence in Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; 33 per cent in France’s President Emmanuel Macron, 20 per cent in Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, and 25 per cent in China’s President Xi Jinping.

Forty-seven per cent of Indians thought the US interfered in the affairs of other countries a fair or great deal, and 30 per cent that it did not.

The percentages do not add to 100 per cent because some respondents had no views or did not respond.

Though sliding, views of Trump and the US in India were better than the median of the 36 countries in this year’s survey, and it is among the small group with more positive views of the US, especially when compared to China.

Around the world, Pew said that “opinions of the US have worsened”.

The surveys conducted from February 8 to May 13 showed that a median of 57 per cent of adults in the survey across the 36 countries had a negative view of the US.

The positive view of the US was down to a median of 37 per cent from 49 per cent last year, although that covered only 24 countries.

Among the countries surveyed, 76 per cent had no confidence in Trump to do right by the world, and only 23 per cent had confidence in him.

On other topics surveyed, among Indians the approval rate for Trump’s policies was 32 per cent for immigration; 17 per cent for Venezuela; 28 per cent for Iran 28 per cent; 26 per cent for Ukraine; 18 per cent for Gaza; and 23 per cent for Greenland.

Fifty-four per cent of Indians said the US government respected personal freedoms.

In Pakistan, which has found favour with Trump, 82 per cent of those surveyed had a negative view of him — one of the highest among the countries surveyed; and only 12 per cent viewed him positively.

As for the US, 81 per cent of Pakistanis had a negative view of it, and 76 per cent believed the US interfered in the affairs of other countries a fair or great deal.

Among the countries surveyed, China had the highest favourable rating in Pakistan — 90 per cent.

The survey spotlighted an area of concern — the growing influence of China among all countries.

The percentage of those in the countries surveyed who have a positive view of China has increased from 38 per cent last year to 46 per cent this year, while for the US it fell from 48 per cent to 36 per cent.

In India, favourable opinion of China ticked up slightly from 21 per cent last year to 23 per cent this year.

IANS