A new global survey report has found that even as U.S. President Barack Obama’s approval ratings here hover near his all-time low of around 40 per cent, his popularity abroad improved significantly, and nowhere more so in India, where 74 per cent of Indians expressed confidence in him compared to 48 per cent one year ago.
According to a report released this week by the Pew Research Centre on how the world views and rates the U.S. and its policies, India also converged with a numerous of Asian nations in expressing majority support for the view that “greater American military commitment to the region would be a good thing because it could help maintain peace.”
Meet with ModiThe U.S. President visited India in January and held a much-touted summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the visit was hailed as a success for adding momentum to progress with the bilateral agenda.
India’s overall assessment of the U.S. under Mr. Obama also jumped dramatically this year, to 70 per cent, after trailing at close to 55 per cent for the past two years, the Pew Centre report noted.
The proportion of Indians who believed that the U.S. was the world’s leading economic superpower also jumped more than it did for any other nation, from 47 per cent in 2014 to 66 per cent in 2015.
Indians appeared much more divided in their support of China’s rise, or belief that it was a dominant world power, with 41 per cent viewing Beijing favourably and 32 per cent viewing it unfavourably.
Amongst the Indian age cohorts responding to the survey younger members of the population appeared to view the U.S. more favourably than their older counterparts.
While 75 per cent of Indians aged 18-29 years had a positive opinion of the U.S. in 2015, the figure for Indians aged 30-49 and aged 50+ was 67 per cent.
On policy matters at a broad level, an overwhelming 74 per cent of Indians had confidence that Mr. Obama would “do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
In terms of specific U.S. policies, Indians appeared to think similarly to their counterparts around the world as 64 per cent said that they supported U.S. military actions against Islamic State, the militant jihadist outfit, in Syria and Iraq.
Except Russia and countries in Latin America and a few in Africa, citizens of most nations responding to the Pew survey appeared to back the U.S. in this campaign.
However India was again part of a global majority viewpoint when a majority in the country opposed the U.S.’ use of torture, euphemistically called “enhanced interrogation” by officials here.
