'Lot at stake' for India, US in trade talks: Ex-NSA John Bolton

There is "a lot at stake” for both India and the US in bilateral trade talks, and it’s been a significant problem that both sides have not been able to resolve issues more quickly, former National Security Adviser (NSA) of the United States, John Bolton, said on Wednesday.

In an interaction with PTI over a video link, he also spoke on the massive protests in Iran, the Venezuela situation and the recent tariff threats issued by US President Donald Trump to countries trading with Iran.

”Well, I think it’s a terrible idea to add even more tariff burdens. I think this is just a Trump, off the top of his head idea… Secondary tariffs are not the way to deal with the regime."

He said Iran is in deep economic trouble. The sanctions on oil have produced a significant effect, 45-plus years of ”mismanagement by the Ayatollahs” is what is really responsible, he added.

”But, we should be focused on, if the objective here is regime change, how best to make that happen as soon as possible at minimal cost to the people of Iran. And, the tariffs to me are just irrelevant to that issue,” he said.

As Iran continued to witness massive anti-government protests, Trump on Tuesday said a 25% tariff will be slapped on countries having trade with Tehran and it will become "effective immediately”.

The death toll in the nationwide protests in Iran increased to over 3,000, according to activists.

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The protests began late last month in Tehran after the Iranian currency rial plunged to record lows. The protests have since spread to all 31 provinces, evolving from an agitation against economic woes to a demand for political change.

Asked what further course of action Washington could take on the Iran situation, Bolton said, ”I think Trump needs to decide what his goal is, and then you can think about the steps to take it forward. I think the (Iranian) regime is at the weakest point it has been since the revolution of 1979, for economic reasons, social reasons, ethnic reasons, the country’s in deep trouble and these demonstrations reflected.” ”At the moment, I do think that the use of military force here can serve two objectives. One to destroy or paralyse key assets of the regime that they’re using to repress the people. And two, to send a message to the people, that the outside world, the US in particular, is doing what it can, to help them,” the former US NSA said when asked if the US could use military action against Iran.

On the planned India-US trade deal, and possible reasons why it has faced issues, Bolton said, ”There’s a lot at stake for both India and the United States in these trade talks. I think it’s been a significant problem that we haven’t been able to resolve the issues more quickly.” "And, I think, as important as trade is, I certainly don’t mean to minimise its importance because it’s critical for the well-being of our citizens, but we have important strategic issues in common here that we need to discuss,” he said.

All major international economies have problems on trade, it’s just "goes with the territory,” said Bolton, who served as NSA to President Trump, in 2018-2019, during his first term, and later became critical of Trump.

He said the way to handle the situation is to work it out with continuing close consultation by the appropriate authorities, and leave the leaders free to look at the big picture.

"I think from the US point of view, the whole tariff campaign that Trump undertook is a big mistake. I wish it would go away, frankly, the Supreme Court will make some of it go away,” he said.

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"But it’s been more harmful by a long shot than good, for the US. I think the impact on relations with India is a good case study of how the negative impact on trade really is dwarfed by the negative impact on the overall relationship,” he argued.

In August, Trump slapped a 50 per cent tariff on India including a 25 per cent additional duty for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil.

Asked about Trump’s overtures towards Pakistan, and whether it entails making New Delhi anxious, Bolton said, "Well I think, one thing that happened after 9/11 (attack), was that for the first time, I think, the US broke what people used to call the hyphenated relationship.” "How we got along with India depended on how we got along with Pakistan and vice versa. I think that was an unsatisfactory situation for all three countries. I think the US-India relationship is perhaps the most important strategic relationship we have in the 21st century,” he said.

But dealing with Pakistan is "not unimportant”, and especially, because of the efforts of the "Chinese to gain a stronger and stronger position in Pakistan, with the Pakistani military… that concerns me greatly, as obviously it concerns India,” he added.

On the Venezuela situation, he said, "Well, I think we were fully justified in overthrowing the regime in Venezuela.”