America's unpopularity in Pakistan a issue of concern: US

I / Washington August 11, 2009, 11:23 IST

America's increasing unpopularity in Pakistan is an issues of concern for the United States, the Obama administration has said.     

The observations came in the wake of the latest poll by Gallup International's Pakistan unit, which found that 59 per cent of Pakistanis consider the US the greatest threat to their country, five times as many people voting that way as they did for India, their traditional rival, or even the Pak Taliban.     

"I saw that poll, and it is obviously very concerning. We clearly have a lot of work to do," the State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said at his daily press briefing.     

 

The poll finding comes even as the United States has been one of the largest contributors of humanitarian aid and development assistance to Pakistan.     

"We need to obviously do a better job of telling our story to the Pakistani people and to others around the world," Wood argued.     

Observing that the US is committed to a set of values, Wood said: "We promote those values worldwide. We want to help Pakistan improve its economy, its security, to try to help the Pakistani people."   

The Obama administration, Wood said, has done a lot to address the concerns of not only the Muslim world but in other parts of the world with its sincerity in dialogue and effort to make the world a better place. "We will continue to do that," he said.     

Wood lauded the efforts of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her commitment to engage with "citizens from all parts of society".     

"If you look at our aid numbers, they're up. If you look at what we're trying to do in Afghanistan, other places around the world, I think the US has a very good track record.     

"We'll continue to work on trying to tell our story better. There's no question we need to do a better job of that. But that's a work in progress, and we'll continue to work on it," Wood said.