US move to keep India out of Russia sanctions

CAATSA Change in law could pave way for purchase of S400 air defence system

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: The US congress has taken a significant legislative step towards amending a law that seeks to punish Russia for the 2016 election meddling that, if enacted, would allow India to go ahead with its plans to purchase Russian S-400 air defence systems without worrying about American sanctions.

A final version of US defence spending bill for 2019 that was announced Monday amends existing waivers in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to allow third-party countries to buy military equipment from Russia as long as they fulfil certain conditions.

India fulfils most of them, according to officials and experts, and it could go ahead with its proposed purchase of S-400s without the fear of secondary (unintended) sanctions that had cast a shadow on ties between the two countries and on the upcoming inaugural “2+2 Dialogue” in New Delhi.

The portion of the bill — National Defense Authorization Act — that amends CAATSA does not mention any country, but the intended beneficiaries of the amended waiver are India, Vietnam and some others, as named by Defence Secretary James Mattis in his appeal to lawmakers during a congressional hearing last week. They are in national security interests of the US

The affected governments are reducing arms inventory produced by Russia They are cooperating with the US on critical security matters

There is no involvement of Russian intelligence agencies and entities engaged in cyberattacks of India’s arms imports came from Russia between 2013 and 2017, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Russia has been India’s largest defence supplier since the 1960s. But imports from Russia have fallen from 79% in 2008-12. India is likely to ink a ~39,000-cr deal with

Russia for S-400 air defence systems

India has widened its arms purchases to include US equipment. From 2.7% in 2008-12, the imports have gone up to 15% in the latest five-year period