Thaindian News

Washington, June 17 (DPA) The US’ image in Western Europe remains high, while Muslim nations still have a negative view of the US and are sceptical about President Barack Obama’s policies, according to a survey released Thursday.
The favourability rating for the US has climbed since Obama replaced the unpopular George W. Bush as president, notably in Germany and France, where a respective 63 and 73 percent of those polled expressed a positive view, the annual Pew Research Centre survey showed.

Those numbers are about the same as last year and well above the low marks that were stuck in the 30 percentile in 2007. The poll showed that 88 percent of Germans and 84 percent of French support Obama’s policies.

The US remained popular in India, although that number slipped from 76 percent to 66 percent.

But Obama’s popularity in Europe does not translate to the Muslim world.

In Egypt, the percentage of Muslims expressing confidence in Obama fell from 41 percent last year to 31 percent, while in Turkey it fell from 33 percent to 23 percent. In the 2009 survey, only 13 percent of Pakistani Muslims were confident in Obama. That figure fell to eight percent this year.

Overall, the US image fell in Egypt and Jordan. Thirty-three percent of Egyptians held a positive view of the US, dropping from 42 percent, and in Jordan the image slumped from 31 percent to 26 percent.

There were also some improvements in Russia, where 57 percent expressed a positive view - up from 44 percent in 2009. The Chinese also gave the US higher marks, with 58 percent having a positive over 47 percent last year.