Even under Obama, can India trust the US?

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met US President Barack H. Obama in Italy yesterday. A new opinion poll shows that more Indians think the United States abuses its greater power in its government’s relationship with this country’s.

In the poll conducted by World Public Opinion, only one in three Indians think the US plays a positive role in the world although two out of three think Uncle Sam is cooperative with other countries.

The Indian leg of the poll was conducted by C-Voter:

“While Indians widely express confidence in Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs, they only lean toward seeing the US as playing a positive role in the world. Like most nations polled, Indians see the US as respectful of human rights and cooperative with other countries. However, a growing number say the US is hypocritical for promoting international laws and not following them itself, and Indians are now divided on whether the US treats their country fairly or abuses its greater power.”

# A majority (80%) says they have confidence in Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs.

# Half of Indians (50%) see the US as respectful of human rights and a majority (61%) believes the US is generally cooperative with other countries.

Indians are divided over whether the US treats their country fairly (45%) or abuses its greater power to get India to do what it wants (47%, up from 32% in 2008), and a majority (61%) believes the US uses the threat of military force to gain advantages.

# A majority (62%) see the US as promoting international laws for other countries but also as hypocritical because it often neglects to apply the same rules to itself (up from 51% in 2008).

# A slight majority (53%) approves of how the US is handling climate change, while 35% disapprove.

# A plurality (47%) says that the US is playing a mainly positive role in the world, while 31% see its role as mainly negative.

Read the full article: Much criticism of US foreign policy