Former Secretary of State John Kerry has raised the alarm bells over US President Donald Trump possibly damaging ties with allies such as India. Speaking at ET World Leaders Forum yesterday, he said that threatening ultimatums and without real diplomacy "does not portray greatness," and the tensions that arise as a result in the India-US relationship is "unfortunate."
"We are concerned. This struggle between President Trump and PM Modi is unfortunate. Great nations don't necessarily exhibit greatness by giving people ultimatums all the time without sort of a genuine diplomatic effort to try to find common ground and do things through the normal course of business," he said.
According to a senior U.S. official who worked under President Obama, when the Obama administration was engaged in negotiations with India, they conducted the discussions with collaboration and respect, while today, "it feels like there’s a little too much ordering, pressuring and pushing around."
India-U.S. relations have been strained over the last few weeks following the Trump administration's implementation of secondary tariffs on India due to its purchase of Russian oil, and exacerbated by New Delhi resisting Trump as a peacemaker amidst India's recent conflict with Pakistan. Now, U.S. tariffs on Indian exports are greater than 50%.
Kerry also hoped that New Delhi and Washington can resolve the trade issue. He stated he wished the best for PM Modi and India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, both of whom he called friends, and Kerry expressed admiration for India's mindset around negotiations.
"My hope is that we will resolve this dispute. I think India has made a pretty powerful offering frankly," he said, noting reports that India had offered zero tariff on a number of US imports as a "big shift".
Kerry is among numerous former US officials and experts who are concerned that Trump’s policies will alienate India.
Earlier this month, former Trump aide John Bolton criticized the President for perhaps reversing decades of US efforts to induce India to drift away from Russia and China; warning that the President's pro-China policies might be an “immense mistake”.
In a CNN interview, Bolton referred to it as ironic that the secondary tariff aimed at Russia might force India closer to both Russia and China and lead them to jointly negotiate with one another against the US.
US foreign policy expert Christopher Padilla, a former US trade official, also cautioned that the tariffs might damage US-India relations for the long haul. Padilla noted that “it could raise questions later whether the US is a reliable partner; the tariffs would be hard to forget.”
Jeffrey Sachs, a top US economist, had ripped into President Trump's punitive tariffs as "the stupidest tactical move in US foreign policy." "These tariffs on India are not a strategy; they're sabotage...The imposition of the 25 per cent penalty tariff on India, what it did overnight was unify the BRICS countries as never before," he said.
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