NEW YORK: This recent interview of John Bolton, the National Security Adviser during President Trump’s first presidency and former US Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, to a TV station supporting India’s Modi government is certainly noteworthy, but not worrisome because John Bolton, a staunch opponent of Pakistan-China friendship, is not only oblivious of the current situation on the ground in the US and the sub-continent, but he has also been officially banned by President Trump from accessing US foreign policy and security matters and information.
Therefore, his latest pro-India statement not only contradicts facts and Trump’s foreign policy but is also the statement of an angry and ideologically anti-China former National Security Adviser as President Trump had fired him from his post on September 10, 2019, after just 17 months in office due to his failure to handle US foreign policy during the first term. While John Bolton’s response statement said that he had resigned from President Trump’s cabinet. Not only this, but also during the first term of Trump’s presidency, John Bolton had been denied and prohibited from accessing national secrets and documents, including US security and foreign affairs. Therefore, John Bolton is not only a staunch political opponent of Donald Trump, but also refuses to give him any credit for anything. Bolton belongs to those circles in the Republican Party that have been staunch opponents of China even before the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
It seems that he is ideologically opposed to China and supports America’s aggressive strategy, ignoring the realities on the ground and China’s development.
The New York Times, commenting on the removal of John Bolton from the position of National Security Advisor in the cabinet by President Trump (resigning, according to John Bolton), wrote that John Bolton spent much of his time preventing President Trump for making peace with America’s opponents because these actions were against John Bolton’s “warlike approach”.
He visited Pakistan in 1982 and several times later as well. He supported keeping US relations with India and Pakistan in separate contexts. The way President Trump dismissed him made John Bolton a strong opponent of Trump.