Majority of Indians have confidence in Donald Trump’s handling of world affairs: Pew Research Center

The survey, conducted between June 24 and October 2, 2019, was based on 2,476 adult respondents, surveyed face to face.

People ride past a hoarding with the images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump installed next to decorated trees alongside a road ahead of Mr. Trump’s visit, in Ahmedabad on February 20, 2020.

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s arrival in India only days away, a new survey from the Pew Research Center suggests that while Mr. Trump is positively perceived by Indians in India, his specific policies, including trade, are not as positively regarded. The survey also found that Indians who associate with the BJP are more likely to think favourably of Mr. Trump than those associated with the Congress.

The survey , conducted between June 24 and October 2, 2019, was based on 2,476 adult respondents, surveyed face to face, found that a majority (56%) of Indians surveyed in 2019 had confidence in Mr. Trump doing the right thing regarding world affairs. This number has increased from 14% in 2016. A large part of this increase is because the share of “don’t know” responses (or those declining to respond) to the question on Mr. Trump’s approach to world affairs has decreased from 67% to 30% over three years. The proportion of those saying the lack confidence in Mr. Trump’s handling of world affairs has more or less flat-lined since 2016.

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Prior to former U.S. President Barack Obama’s departure from office, 58% of Indians had confidence in his handling of world affairs, 9% had no confidence and 33% did not opine on it.

Other survey results were also highlighted by Pew just before Mr. Trump’s visit to India. Forty eight per cent of Indians disapprove Mr. Trump’s policies of increasing fees and tariffs on goods from other countries entering the U.S., roughly a quarter approve and another quarter do not offer an opinion. BJP supporters are just as likely as Congress supporters to disapprove of Mr. Trump’s tariff policies, and less likely to provide an answer. These results are based on another Pew survey conducted in the spring of 2019.

The last two years have been tense as far as trade relations between India and the U.S. are concerned with

Mr. Trump calling India “Tariff King”

, including India on a list of countries slapped with tariffs on steel and aluminium, revoking

India’s access to the U.S.’s preferential trading system , the

Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). India slapped retaliatory tariffs on 28 U.S. products. The two sides are

yet to work out a modest trade deal and have ambitions to eventually work towards a more comprehensive free trade agreement.

On the economic ties India has with the U.S. versus ties with China, 62% of Indians said it was more important to have strong economic ties with the U.S. than with China (Spring 2019 Global Attitudes Survey). Thirty six per cent of Indians say they lack confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s handling of world affairs and 21% say they have confidence in Mr. Xi.