India should step forward to fill void created by President Trump: Former US official Vickery

Washington DC [US], July 31 (ANI): Former US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development Ray Vickery has criticised US President Donald Trump's unilateral and confrontational approach to trade policy, urging India to rise as a global democratic leader following Washington's imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on New Delhi on Wednesday (local time).

Speaking on Trump's announcement of a 25 per cent tariff plus additional penalties on India, set to take effect August 1, Vickery described the move as part of the US President's typical pattern of generating bilateral pressure and chaos to eventually claim credit for resolving a crisis of his own making.

"This is typical Trump trying to create as much pressure and chaos on a bilateral basis as possible so that he can, in the end, claim victory by solving or at least ameliorating the problem which he's created," he said during an interview with ANI.

"It is very unfortunate that President Trump is taking this completely transactional bilateral approach," he added.

He expressed concern over Trump's abandonment of the multilateral trade framework, established through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and carried forward by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Despite the current turbulence in trade relations, Vickery believes there's still room for calm and constructive diplomacy, citing long-standing negotiations that were nearing completion.

"The basic difficulty is the abandonment by President Trump of the multilateral approach to international trade as embodied since World War II, first in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and then in the WTO. That having been said, it seems to me that what is going on here is a continued negotiation tactic. You will recall that when Prime Minister Modi was in Washington in the early days of this Trump administration, the timetable that had been set was the fall, and of course, Trump has moved up a lot of the negotiations and is trying to get this one closed as well. I believe there is no need to panic and that saner heads on both the US and Indian sides can come to an agreement," said the Former US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development.

Vickery also highlighted a new dimension in Trump's rhetoric on India's energy ties with Russia. The former official said the shift in Trump's posture came after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, noting that Russia's discounted oil exports to countries like India and China are part of Moscow's effort to maintain revenue while waging war.

He emphasised that India should have alternatives and reassess its reliance on Russian energy, looking at the current scenario.

"There are a couple of new elements in this. One is that he has, for the first time, introduced the Russian aspect of the equation... It's finally gotten through to him that Putin is not his friend and that he isn't going to respond to anything other than pressure... India will need to consider its interests regarding Russia and the issue of oil imports. India will need to consider its interests more carefully when deciding whether to further open its economy to international competition," he said.

"The shift came when Russia invaded Ukraine and in order to provide the wherewithal to continue this sort of imperialistic venture, it cut prices to India and others, particularly to China, in order to keep the revenue flowing. India can take measures with many other sources in regard to oil. And I believe that it is true that India needs to reevaluate its leaders' leadership position as a great democracy. And as far as I can see, the values that are expressed by authoritarian regimes are not those of India, but it is up to India to decide in the longer run where its interest in being a world leader lies," he added.

However, Vickery went further, framing the current moment as a global leadership opportunity for India and urging India, "a past master" at working with other nations, to take a greater role on the global stage, especially as one of the world's largest democracies.

"There's an opportunity here for India. The world needs leadership. It doesn't have it with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a my-way-or-the-highway sort of guy, and in the medium to long run, that isn't going to work. India is a past master in many ways of being able to work with others, and it should step forward as one of the world's leading democracies to fill the void that has been created by President Trump," he concluded. (ANI)

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