UN vote won’t dent our ties: Daniel Carmon

NEW DELHI: The Indo-Israel relationship is much stronger than one vote in the UN, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said Friday ahead of Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to New Delhi starting January 14.

“The question is if it will influence our relationship or if it can influence the relationship,” Carmon said in response to a question with reference to New Delhi's vote in the UN in favour of a resolution that denounced US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

“The vote at UN is important, but it will not mar the big picture of the India-Israel relationship. I think the relationship is much stronger than one vote in the UN,” the envoy said.


Last month, India supported the Egypt-sponsored vote in UN General Assembly that demanded the US comply with Security Council decisions against changing the status of Jerusalem. India may also leverage its relationship with Israel to drive ho-me its point on the two-state solution to end a protracted crisis in West Asia.

Carmon, however, said that there was a lot of importance in the votes in the UN and said that these have always been on the joint agenda of India and Israel. “Sometimes, it is India that comes to Israel with a request and sometimes Israel comes to India with a request," he said. “We cannot always fulfil those requests.

That is why we are two countries, two members of the UN.” He mentioned Israel's support to the Indian candidate for the International Court of Justice, Judge Dalveer Bhandari, last year as an example of Israel’s support for India at an important multilateral forum.