India has evolved on UN: Robert Blake

The Republican chairman of the house foreign affairs subcommittee on Asia, on Tuesday questioned the Obama administration's point man on South Asia on India's propensity to vote against the United States at the United Nations, ostensibly taking a swipe at President Obama's endorsement of India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Congressman Steve Chabot from Ohio, who convened a hearing on the subcontinent, asked Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake, to explain why India's voting record was inimical to that of the US, and pointed out that this was a question he had raised with Meera Shankar, India's ambassador to the US too.

Chabot said, "Relative to India, one of the things that I find particularly annoying as a member of Congress and a representative of the taxpayers, who send dollars over to India -- and let me preface this by saying: I consider India to be an important ally to the US, an important trading partner, and even more so in years to come, hopefully -- is that in the UN they have a history of not being particularly in sync with where the US is."

"And I asked to have the most recent year available, which I think is 2009, the numbers, how they were with the US. I was informed that the overall rating was not particularly big," he said. 

They were with us 30 per cent of the time, not counting consensus vote. On important votes they were with us 11 percent of the time. One would hope that a strategic ally, a friend of the United States would be with us a bit more than 11 percent."

Chabot said, "I met with the ambassador from India on the same topic and expressed my concern about that."

Blake in his response said, "First of all, this is something that we've had a long dialogue with our friends in India about. I would say that things are changing. India's now on a two-year rotation; just started in January, and will be on for the next two years."

"We have made it a point on very important votes to talk to them. And I would point to things such as some of the recent International Atomic Energy Agency votes over the last several years on Iran, where India has similar interests to ours in terms of ensuring that there's not going to be another nuclear-weapons state in the region. And they've taken some very important votes with the US and with the majority on…"

But Chabot interrupted Blake and said, "What you said is when it's in their interest. So when our interests align, they're with us."

Blake said, "I would say even on some of these things such as human rights, where traditionally the Indians have not been willing to support country-specific resolutions, I believe there's actually been an evolution, and there will continue to be a revolution."

He said, "Because one of the most important trends in India over the last 10 years, is that they want to be a responsible global power, they want to help to manage the international system. So I believe that we are going to see an evolution in their voting patterns."

Chabot said, "But again, 11 per cent isn't very good on the important votes. And I would hope that they would be in line naturally more often, and not only if it's just in their best interest."