US image stays high in Europe; weak in Muslim countries

Jun 18, 2010, 14:08 GMT

Washington - The US image in Western Europe remains high, while Muslim nations still have a negative view of the United States and are sceptical about President Barack Obama's policies, according to a survey released Thursday.

The favourability rating for the United States has climbed since Obama replaced the unpopular George W Bush as president, notably in Germany and France, where a respective 63 and 73 per cent 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 in the 30 percentile in 2007 for Germany and France. For 20 nations over the three years, the median favourability rating went from 40 to 60 per cent.

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, co-chair of the Global Attitudes Project, said the poll was a 'positive' indication that views toward the United States were improving following the difficult period of the Bush years.

Even better, the poll showed many countries are not blaming the United States for economic problems, instead fingering their own governments and banking systems, she said.

In terms of how the US president was specifically viewed, the poll showed that 88 per cent of Germans and 84 per cent of French support Obama's policies.

But Obama's popularity in Europe did not translate to the Muslim world. Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Centre, said the 'bad news' was that the Muslim public is more critical of Obama than in last year's study.

In Egypt the percentage of Muslims expressing confidence in Obama fell from 41 per cent last year to 31 per cent, while in Turkey it fell from 33 per cent to 23 per cent. In the 2009 survey, only 13 per cent of Pakistani Muslims were confident in Obama. That figure fell to 8 per cent this year.

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

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

The United States remained popular in India, although that number slipped from 76 per cent to 66 per cent.

Kohut noted the United States continues to be seen as a country that makes decisions unilaterally. Nonetheless, the research showed that fewer respondents - a median of 63 per cent - believed the United States acted unilaterally in 2010 as compared to 67 per cent in 2007.

The Pew Center conducted 24,790 interviews in 22 countries from April 7 to May 8 for the global attitudes survey. Margins of error varied from country to country in a range of 2.5 to 5 per cent.