India-Pak Tensions: What ex-US NSA John Bolton says post Pahalgam terror attack - ‘PM Modi exercised a great deal of…’

India-Pak Tensions: Former US national security advisor (NSA) John Bolton has said India is ‘entitled to retaliate and try to eliminate terrorist threats’ to its sovereignty and people amid escalated tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of deadly Pahalgam attack.

Bolton, who was NSA to President Donald Trump in his first term, has acknowledged that India had a ‘legitimate right to self-defence’ when faced with the threat of terrorism. Bolton, however, urged New Delhi to exhaust all diplomatic avenues before launching a military counterstrike.

"I think Prime Minister Narendra Modi exercised a great deal of restraint having been through a similar episode in 2019," Bolton told NDTV, referring to the deadly Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 soldiers in February the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Bolton said it was imperative for India to a record for the rest of the world - that it had tried to everything to ensure a peaceful resolution to this long-standing problem.

Chinese influence on Pakistan

"I think there are two possible approaches to take and am sure the Indian government has already thought of this. No 1. I'd be concerned about the growing Chinese influence on Pakistan. This needs to be put on the table between India and Pakistan,” he said.

Bolton’s remarks cine amid escalating tensions and Pakistan's downgraded diplomatic relations with India after the worst-ever terror attack on civilians in twenty-five years in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, on 22 April.

"And, No 2. India should go to China and say 'we expect you, as a bordering country with us, to press Pakistan to control these terror groups. If both these fail then India can say we tried to do everything from a diplomatic perspective and avoid significant escalation."

Amid the escalting tensions, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is ramping up preparedness with mock drills across 244 categorised districts in the country on May 7.

Bolton also stressed that should the Indian government calculate that it had, in fact, exhausted all diplomatic options, any military response needs to ‘precise’.

"I think if India's retaliation was directed against the group that carried out the attack... if it were precise... then it would demonstrate India has no larger ambition (and) it would give Pakistan a face-saver opportunity... to step back and restart diplomatic negotiations,” he said.

Last week, US Vice President JD Vance said that India's response to Pahalgam attack should be measured to avoid triggering a “wider regional conflict”. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Vance also emphasised that Pakistan must cooperate with India in addressing the threat of extremism.