The United States has warned India against its plan of purchasing S-400 air defence systems from Russia when President Vladimir Putin visits New Delhi for a bilateral summit on Thursday, reported Reuters. The commercial negotiations for the deal, estimated to be around Rs 37,000 crore, concluded in May.
Under new US laws, countries that sign deals with Russian defence or intelligence sectors can face secondary sanctions. President Donald Trump signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act into law in August 2017, and it came into effect in 2018. It aimed to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections and the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, among other things.
“We urge all of our allies and partners to forgo transactions with Russia that would trigger sanctions under the CAATSA,” a US State Department official said. “The administration has indicated that a focus area for the implementation of CAATSA Section 231 is new or qualitative upgrades in capability – including the S-400 air and missile defence system.”
However, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had earlier said that discussions were on whether to grant India waivers from US sanctions on Russia and Iran. He had said that Washington did not aim to “penalise great strategic partners like India”.
Last month, the US imposed sanctions on China after its military bought fighter jets and missile systems from Russia. Moscow said that these sanctions undermined global stability. “It would be good for them to remember there is such a concept as global stability which they are thoughtlessly undermining by whipping up tensions in Russian-American ties,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had said. “Playing with fire is silly, it can become dangerous.”
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