- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
TWO American senators have requested US president Joe Biden to waive sanctions that Washington has imposed on India over the latter’s purchase of the S-400 defence system from Russia, saying such measure would harm the two democracies’ growing cooperation.
India signed a deal worth $5.5 billion (£4 billion) with Russia for five surface-to-air missile systems for defence against adversaries like Pakistan and China.
The proposed transaction saw friction between New Delhi and Washington, which passed a law in 2017 under which any country that engaged with Russia in matters of defence and intelligence could face American sanctions.
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Republican senator John Cornyn and his Democratic counterpart Mark Warner wrote a letter to Biden on Tuesday (26) seeking a waiver on grounds of national security and border cooperation.
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“We believe there is a national security imperative to waiving sanctions,” the two lawmakers said in their letter.
They expressed concern that the transfer of the Russian systems would trigger sanctions against India under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was enacted during the times of Donald Trump presidency in 2017 to hold Russia accountable for interfering in American elections, cyber hacking and bullying Ukraine. Trump himself had expressed reservations over the act.
Cornyn also said that India “has taken significant steps to reduce its reliance on Russian military equipment and has shown interest in purchasing equipment from the US”.
“One of the biggest threats to our growing relationship has been the possibility of sanctions for the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system. But I think what gives me confidence is that India has taken significant steps to reduce its reliance on Russian military equipment and has shown an interest in purchasing equipment from the United States and is working more closely with us based on shared values,” Press Trust of India reported Cornyn as saying.
India has made a downpayment for the Russian defence systems and the first set of the equipment is likely to be dispatched later this year.
The US has imposed sanctions on Turkey for buying the same military hardware from Russia last year.
Cornyn and Warner, who co-chairs the Senate India Caucus, said they shared the White House’s concerns about Russia but they also warned of damage to cooperation with India if the sanctions went ahead.
“We believe that the application of CAATSA sanctions could have a deleterious effect on a strategic partnership with India, while at the same time, not achieve the intended purpose of deterring Russian arms sales,” they wrote.
India has been slashing its purchase of military equipment from Russia, which traditionally has been a supplier of military hardware to the South Asian power. Russian arms exports to India saw a 53 per cent drop between 2016 and 2020 if compared with the preceding five-year period.
On the other hand, India’s defence deals with the US have gone up and registered at $3.4 billion (£2.4 billion) in the 2020 fiscal. According to the senators, these are positive signs.
“Imposing sanctions at this time could derail deepening cooperation with India across all aspects of our bilateral relationship – from vaccines to defense cooperation, from energy strategy to technology sharing,” they said.
(With Reuters inputs)
