U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to decertify the nuclear deal with Iran could put strains on nuclear negotiations with North Korea in the future, said Francois Hollande, former President of France.

He criticized Trump’s warning of terminating the nuclear pact with Iran if the latter does not comply with reform promises, stressing “consistency and stability” are key elements to keep an agreement intact, and “unpredictability is the biggest risk,” during his speech titled ‘Future of Global Geopolitics’ at the 18th World Knowledge Forum (WKF) in Seoul on Tuesday. “The Trump administration’s move to end the Iran nuclear deal would sow the seeds of distrust in future nuclear talks with North Korea,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced last Friday that he is formally “decertifying” the Iran nuclear deal framework, a landmark agreement made by several world powers and Iran in 2015 under the previous Barack Obama administration. The deal aims to reduce Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons while lifting economic sanctions against the country in return.

Hollande cited nuclear proliferation along with terrorism, climate change and trade protectionism as the greatest threats to the global economic prosperity. “Advance in technology has given easier access to nuclear arms than ever before,” he said, adding that yielding to nuclear threats would ignite an endless arms race.

The "unpredictable” U.S. policies have aggravated risks to the global politics, he said. “The U.S. seems to pursue isolationism and imperialism at the same time, and try to maintain international alliances but abandon multilateralism,” Hollande said.

He called upon U.S. allies to maintain a coherent attitude towards the country and speak out to the Trump administration with a united voice. He also said the U.S. should deal with its allies based on “mutual respect” and should not abuse its global alliances as a means of threats.

He warned that protectionism would undermine the global economy and might usher in an era of great depression once again as history shows.

By Lee Yu-sup, Yon Q-uk and Choi Mira

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