Former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan accused President Donald Trump of sacrificing ties with India to boost his family’s business deals in Pakistan. The Biden-era official called the sabotaging of ties with India “one of the most under-reported aspects of Trump’s foreign policy".
During an interview with MeidasTouch YouTube channel, Sullivan said, “For decades, on a bipartisan basis, the US has worked to strengthen its relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy—a country with which we should be aligned on technology, talent, economics, and in countering China’s strategic drift." He further noted, “Significant progress had been made on that front".
“Now, largely due to Pakistan’s willingness to engage in business deals with the Trump family, Trump has sidelined the India relationship. This is a major strategic setback because a strong India-US partnership serves our core interests," he added.
He further emphasised that due to this, every other country in the world, Germany, Japan or Canada, will look at the situation and say “that could be us tomorrow".
“And that only reinforces your view that you’ve got to hedge against the United States," Sullivan added.
The former NSA said that having America’s friends and other countries around the world decide that they cannot rely on the US in any way, shape, or form is not in the interest of the American people in the long term.
“Our word should be our bond. We should be good for what we say. Our friends should be able to rely on us, and that has always been our strength. And what’s happening with India right now has huge direct impacts. But it also has this reverberating impact across all our relationships and partnerships in the world," Sullivan noted.
