Washington, Sep 2 John Bolton, the former National Security Advisor in the first Trump administration and a vocal critic of the US president, slammed the current administration’s policies toward India, accusing Trump of “shredding” decades of efforts to strengthen the partnership with New Delhi.
“Donald Trump, in the past weeks, has essentially upended that and for a variety of reasons sent India back toward Russia, to grow closer to China, and just shredding these decades of efforts to try and change that alignment,” he told Sky News in an interview on Monday.
He highlighted how, before Trump 2.0, the US had attempted to “wean India away from its Cold War attachment to the Soviet Union and China.”
“The West has spent decades, US in particular, trying to wean India away from its Cold War attachment to the Soviet Union [and] Russia, buying sophisticated weapons from them and cautioning India on the danger posed by China, symbolised by what's called the Asian Security Quad - Japan, India, Australia and the United States,” he added.
He also recounted a series of steps from the Trump administration that “have offended the Indians,” including the abrupt derailment of trade negotiations.
“The Indians thought they were in close negotiations to solve this, as Britain did with Trump, and Trump just dismissed it and set 25 per cent tariffs. Trump whacked India with another 25 per cent. (He) did not tariff Russia, did not tariff China, the largest purchaser of Russian oil and gas,” Bolton explained.
According to him, Trump’s attempt to take “full credit” for the India-Pakistan conflict in May made the situation “worse.”
“When the recent escalation between Pakistan and India over a terrorist attack in Kashmir occurred, it escalated, then came back down. Trump took full credit for it as one of the six or seven wars that he stopped this year to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, which has made India incandescent,” he noted.
Trump on Monday escalated his criticism of India’s trade practices, terming the economic relationship as “one-sided disaster.”
Bolton has come under scrutiny from the current administration, with federal agents raiding his home and offices last week. The US media reports that the raid was linked to allegations that Bolton owned classified documents.
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