Colossal blunder: America’s leading expert criticises Trump’s India strategy

Washington: John Mearsheimer, a leading American international relations expert and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, has termed the Trump administration’s India policy a “colossal blunder” and asserted that secondary tariffs on India for buying Russian oil “won’t work.”

“This is a colossal blunder on our part. It’s hard to believe, but what’s going on here? It (Secondary sanctions) won’t work with India. The Indians have made it clear that they will not cut off the importation of oil from Russia. Indians are not going to cave,” he told the podcast platform “Daniel Davis Deep Dive” last week.

Mearsheimer also accused Trump of “poisoning” a “terrific” relationship with India.

“So, when Trump moved into the White House this past January, relations between the United States and India were really terrific, and for the purposes of containing China, which is our principal foreign policy mission, having good relations with India is essential. But what’s happened since then and now with these secondary sanctions is [that] we have poisoned relations with India,” he added.

He also pointed to a recent German newspaper report claiming that the US president had unsuccessfully tried to reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi on four separate occasions.

“The Indians are furious with us, almost to a person. Trump has tried to call Modi four times, and Modi refuses to talk to him. And furthermore, Modi is moving closer to the Chinese, and he’s moving closer to the Russians. So, this not only does it work, it’s indeed counterproductive. Nevertheless, here we are,” he explained.

Mearsheimer targeted Peter Navarro, the White House Senior Advisor on Trade and Manufacturing, for leading a failed strategy which does not have a “happy ending.”

“There’s nobody out there who’s applauding this move, except for people like Peter Navarro. I don’t understand what the story is as to how this has a happy ending. Are they going to make the argument that India is going to cave, that we have coercive leverage over India to the point where we can bring the Indians to their knees? Is that the argument? I don’t know anybody who believes that, and everything India has done so far says that argument is wrong,” he added.

–IANS