美国总统辩论为何没有提及印度？

In the third and final debate between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, India wasnㄙt mentioned, not even once.

美国总统奥巴马(Barack Obama)和共和党总统候选人罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)在他们的第三尝也是最后一场辩论中没有提及印度，一次都没有。

By comparison, this is how often the following countries were mentioned:

作为对比，我们统计了以下国家被提及的次数：

Iran: 47 times

伊朗：47次

Israel: 34 times

以色列：34次

China: 32 times

中国：32次

Syria: 28 times

叙利亚：28次

Pakistan: 25 times

巴基斯坦：25次

Afghanistan: 21 times

阿富汗：21次

Why was India left out?

为何独独不见印度？

The bottom line, says Sadanand Dhume, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank, is that India is much less central to U.S. foreign policy than many pundits in New Delhi would like to believe.∫

华盛顿智库美国企业研究所(American Enterprise Institute)的研究员杜梅(Sadanand Dhume)说，归根结底，印度在美国外交政策中的地位远远不如新德里许多权威人士愿意认为的那么重要。

Ouch.

唉哟，这太伤人了。

India is a large and inward-looking country and in many ways it sees itself as the centre of Asia whereas in reality as this debate shows it is not quite the case,∫ explains Mr. Dhume, who also contributes opinion pieces to The Wall Street Journal.

杜梅说，印度是个内向型的大国，它在很多方面将自己视为亚洲中心，然而正如这场辩论所展现出来的，实情并非如此。杜梅还为《华尔街日报》“观点栏目撰稿。

There are several reasons why India for all the talk of its strategic partnership∫ with the U.S. is not a major foreign policy concern for the two candidates. And the reasons are not necessarily bad.

尽管人们都在谈论印度与美国的“战略伙伴关系，但它没有成为两位美国总统候选人在外交政策方面的主要关注对象有几个原因。这些原因也并不一定都是坏事。

Relations between the two countries are good and stable and there is a bipartisan consensus that they should stay that way. So there is no real sense of urgency to address the U.S.-India relationship and, as a result, less of a reason to bring it up in a debate.

美国与印度的关系良好且稳定，美国两党也形成了共识，认为应当保持现状。因此并不存在要处理美印关系的紧迫感，从而也就没什么必要在辩论中提及这个话题了。

After all, most of Washingtonㄙs closest allies like the whole of Europe were either not mentioned or mentioned in passing.

毕竟美国大多数最亲密的盟友（比如整个欧洲）要么没有被提及，要么也只是一语带过。

The countries that topped the mentions list are overwhelmingly trouble spots,∫ says Mr. Dhume, In some ways India should be happy not to be on that list.∫

杜梅说，被提及次数最多的那些国家都是极其麻烦的地方，从某种意义上说，印度应当高兴自己不在被提及之列。

The focus areas of the debate were: how to handle the ongoing crisis in Syria; how tough the U.S. should be on Iran as it pursues nuclear ambitions; and how to address the relationship with China and its trade policy.

辩论集中关注的领域包括：如何应对叙利亚持续的危机；在伊朗继续其核野心之际，美国应当采取多强硬的态度；以及如何处理对华关系、应对中国贸易政策。

There are some areas of discord in U.S.-India ties including tensions over U.S. visa rules, and over Indiaㄙs nuclear liability laws but relations are overall warm and these issues are less pressing than the foreign policy concerns mentioned above. So itㄙs understandable that they would get more airtime.

美印关系也有一些不和谐的领域，包括美国签证规定导致的双方关系紧张，以及因印度核责任法而起的摩擦，但总体上是友好的，这些问题也不如前面提及的外交政策重点那么紧迫。那些问题的“出镜率更高也就可以理解了。

Still, itㄙs somewhat surprising that India was left out entirely of the 90-minute discussion. There were a few debate topics under which India couldㄙve come up but didnㄙt: the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the rise of China and tomorrowㄙs world.

不过在历时90分钟的辩论中，印度被彻底排除在外还是有些令人意外。有几个议题本来是有可能提及印度的──比如阿富汗战争、巴基斯坦问题以及中国的崛起和未来世界，但最终却没有。

The U.S. has been encouraging India to take a bigger role in Afghanistan, including by training local security forces, as the U.S. prepares to withdraw most of its troops by the end of 2014. The U.S.ㄙs encouragement of India to take a more active role comes as U.S. ties with Pakistan Indiaㄙs neighbor and historical rival are at a low point. Pakistan, which sees Afghanistan as falling under its sphere of influence, has resisted attempts by New Delhi to set closer ties with Kabul.

随着美国准备在2014年底之前撤出大部分驻阿富汗的部队，美国一直鼓励印度在阿富汗发挥更大作用，包括培训当地安全部队。美国鼓励印度发挥更积极的作用正值美国与巴基斯坦的关系处于低点，巴基斯坦是印度邻邦，也是长期以来的对手。巴基斯坦方面认为阿富汗在其影响范围之内，一直抵制印度试图与喀布尔方面建立更紧密联系的努力。

Despite lengthy discussions on the future of Afghanistan and Pakistanㄙs role in this, neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Romney mentioned India perhaps an indication that New Delhiㄙs influence in Kabul remains limited.

虽然奥巴马和罗姆尼在辩论中长篇大论地讨论了阿富汗的未来以及巴基斯坦在这方面的角色，但他们都没有提及印度──或许这表明印度在喀布尔的影响力仍然有限。

Surprisingly, India wasnㄙt even mentioned when Mr. Obama addressed the issue of jobs being shipped abroad. While outsourcing jobs to India has come up earlier in the campaign, in this debate it was only addressed with reference to China, which both candidates claimed didnㄙt play by trade rules.

令人惊讶的是，当奥巴马提及就业岗位外流的问题时都没提到印度。在早些时候的选战中，向印度外包职位的问题曾被提及，但在这场辩论中，这个问题只与中国相关，两位候选人都指责中国没有按贸易规则行事。

China is much more economically significant and many more jobs have been lost to China than to India,∫ says Mr. Dhume.

杜梅说，中国在经济上更重要，流失到中国的就业岗位也远超过印度。

There is also little evidence to suggest that there will be major changes in India-U.S. relations after the upcoming presidential elections.

也没有什么证据表明，在即将进行的总统大选之后，美印关系会出现重大变化。

After all, India wasnㄙt mentioned once in debates between Mr. Obama and then Republican candidate John McCain four years ago. And since then, the U.S. and India have made efforts to forge deeper ties. Just look at the string of official trips, including of Mr. Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

要知道，四年前奥巴马和当时的共和党总统候选人麦凯恩(John McCain)的辩论中也没有提到印度。从那以后，美国和印度致力于打造更紧密的关系。这一点从奥巴马和美国国务卿克林顿(Hillary Clinton)等人对印度的官方访问就可见一斑。