Global confidence in US leadership at new low: Poll

Global confidence in the US leadership under President Donald Trump has fallen to a new low and the country now ranks below China in worldwide approval ratings, according to a new Gallup poll released on Thursday.

The survey of opinion in 134 countries showed a record collapse in approval for the US role in the world, from 48 per cent under Obama to 30 per cent after one year of Trump -- the lowest level Gallup has recorded since beginning its global leadership poll over a decade ago.

The result came just a day after a separate Gallup survey found that Trump reaches the first anniversary of his inauguration with the lowest average approval rating of any elected President in his first year.

"I think a lot of respondents when they're being asked this, the first thing that's top of mind is the leader of the country," Gallup's global managing partner, Jon Clifton, told Politico magazine.

According to Gallup, the approval dropped by 10 or more points in 65 of the 134 countries and areas surveyed. Regionally, the image of the US was weaker in virtually every part of the world, registering record lows within multiple countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The study, which surveyed roughly 1,000 adults globally, confirmed some of the worst fears of foreign policy analysts in the US and Europe that Trump's "America first" approach, combined with his volatile personality, was weakening cohesion among western democracies in the face of a growing challenge from autocracies in Russia and China, the Guardian reported.

Germany is now seen as a global leader with 41 per cent approval while China in second place with 31 per cent. Russia has 27 per cent approval for its global role, according to the poll.

One of the sharpest declines in confidence in US leadership was in the UK, where it dropped by 26 percentage points.

As part of his "America First" policy, Trump took the US out of several multilateral agreements saying they did not serve national interests, including the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership and the Paris climate deal.

He walked out of talks on a new trade and investment deal with Europe and threatened to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Approval of the US leadership climbed by 10 per cent or more in only four countries: Belarus, Israel, Macedonia and Liberia. It increased moderately in Russia, the former Soviet states in central Asia and parts of West Africa.

The Gallup report said that China, which has overtaken the US as the leading trading partner in parts of Latin America, "may be positioned to take further advantage".

It's approval ratings across the Americas was 4 percentage points higher than the US, but disapproval was much lower at 35 per cent.

--IANS

soni/vm