Americans' approval rating of UN slides: Poll

A majority of Americans (60 per cent) have said that the UN is doing a "poor job" in solving the problems it faces, up by six percentage points from 2016, according to a new poll.

In contrast, only 37 per cent of Americans say the UN is doing a "good job" in solving the problems it faces, down by 1 percentage point from 2016, the Gallup poll conducted between February 1-5, revealed on Sunday.

The poll comes as US President Donald Trump plans to significantly reduce contributions to international organisations, including the UN.

Current Americans' approval rating of the UN is similar to what Gallup has measured since 2013 but above the 2009 low of 26 per cent, Gallup noted.

Gallup first did the poll on the UN in 1953, when most Americans expressed positive views of the organisation. Since then, Americans have become less positive in their views of the UN, Xinhua news agency reported.

The UN only received majority job approval from Americans on a few occasions in the past decades.

In addition to the 1953 poll, a majority of Americans viewed the U.N. positively in two polls bookending the Gulf War of the early 1990s and in three consecutive polls from 2000 to 2002.

--IANS

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