U.N. voting shows N.Z. a strong ally of U.S.

Press, 2 April 1985, Page 30

U.N. voting shows N.Z. a strong ally of U.S.

NZPA-AFP United Nations New Zealand, Japan, and Australia are considered by the United States as its strongest allies at the United Nations, according to the latest report by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mrs Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who has just left her job. As she has done regularly in the last four years, Mrs Kirkpatrick presented last week a 30-page report to Congress and the press on the voting behaviour of the 158 member States of the United Nations during the last General Assembly session. The scientific value of her report is disputed by some delegates from developing countries, who say she is confusing bilateral and multi-lateral diplomacy, but its political implications have not escaped the notice of United Nations diplomats. The Reagan Administration has shown in the past that it can bear grudges and make countries pay for what it sees as “infidelities” on issues it considers important.

September that year. Of the 42 Asian and Pacific countries, only four— New Zealand, Japan, Australia and the Solomon Islands—voted with the United States on more than half the votes during the last General Assembly. The six others which most often followed the United States lead were Samoa, Fiji, Papua-New Guinea, Singapore and the PhilipSines, but they adopted the United States position only once out of every three or four votes.

Contrary to what might be expected, its two most important strategic allies in the region, Thailand and Pakistan, do not appear to bother about the United States position. Out of 153 Questions put to the vote uring the Assembly session, they only voted about 20 times with the United States. Some Arab countries, considered strong allies by Washington, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, rarely vote with the United States.

For example, in 1983, Washington drastically cut its economic aid to Zimbabwe to punish it for its abstention in the United Nations Security Council vote on the Soviet downing of the South Korean jet in.