WASHINGTON: Pakistan is the least favoured nation in India with only 18 per cent seeking better relations with the neighbouring state while 64 per cent wanting to stay away from it, says a new survey released here on Thursday.

The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre claims that nearly three-quarters see Pakistan as posing “a very serious threat to India”.

The survey also describes Pakistan as “a long-running and particularly neuralgic problem in India-US relations”.

But more and more Indians now see the US government being on their side in the India-Pakistan conflict.

About 45pc Indians say American policy favours India rather than Pakistan while only 12pc say it is otherwise. This is a ratio of nearly four-to-one.

An additional 28pc believe that Washington’s policy on the subcontinent fairly balances between Delhi and Islamabad. In 2013, 36pc thought the US favoured India, while 12pc said Pakistan.

Just 43pc have a positive view of Russia, relatively unchanged over the past few years. About four-in-ten (41pc) see China favourably, yet that sentiment is up 10 points from 2014.

And just 28pc are favourably disposed towards Iran. In each case, those with at least some college education have a better opinion of other countries than do those with a primary education or less.

But, for many Indians, especially those living in rural areas, other countries are truly foreign. Roughly four-in-ten Indians express no opinion about Iran and Russia, almost three-in-ten have no view on China, and about two-in-ten say they don’t know how they feel about the US.

And about six-in-ten (63pc) say it is more important for India to have strong economic ties with the US, compared with just 14pc who hold the view that a closer commercial relationship with China would be in India’s best interest.

A year after an election swept the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into power, public satisfaction with India’s direction has nearly doubled while pride in the country is up, as about two-thirds of Indians have a very favourable view of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2015

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