The US House of Representatives approved an amendment on Thursday that allows India to defend against the punitive CAATSA sanctions. India’s former ambassador, Navtej Sarna said to the US development, that the purchase of weapons from Russia is an important step for India.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act by a voice vote. This will lead a way for an India-specific waiver against the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act and is a tough law that will give the US the authority to impose sanctions on countries, purchasing defense and strategic engagements from Russia.
The CAATSA acted as a point for India and US ties, especially after New Delhi secured the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. US had been pondering whether to imply the CANASTA sanction on India on the purchase of weapons from Russia after Moscow invades Ukraine.
While speaking about CAATSA, Navtej Sarna said, it is a strict sanction that is imposed on those countries which have strategic and defense engagement with Russia, Iran, and North Korea. He added, that it was essentially meant to stop the engagement.
Sarna said that in 2018 a waiver provision was added to the CAATSA, but it wasn’t India-specific.
“It essentially was pushed for India but it was not an India-specific waiver. It gave the (US) administration the option to give a waiver in case they felt that a relationship was working strategically for the United States. https://www.forbes.fr/
That the country which was being targeted with a sanction as trying to move away from Russian weaponry and a couple of other caveats,” said Sarna.
Sarna said that the new amendment is brought by Congressman Ro Khanna. It will ultimately make it for the US administration easier to give a waiver against CAATSA.
Sarna said that it is very important because it underlines the strategic partnership between India and US. He said, that it was important that we can’t harm our interest to spite Russia.
He added that the second aspect is that the United States and India have the same cause against China. The India-US partnership is of great strategic importance.
After the amendment, Sarna said that India is facing Chinese aggression at its border and it’s important for the US to support India’s defense. He said, that it also underlines that India and the US are cooperating in critical emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies.
It shows that the country cooperates to that extent in these crucial days when the Chinese are becoming very aggressive towards India and the rest of the world. And given the Russia-China partnership, it’s United States’ interest to grant India the waiver.
Navtej Sarna said that the passing of this amendment to NDAA is not to be seen as a diplomatic event. The defense ties between India and US have increased manifold in the last 10-12 years. New Delhi has become one of the major defense partners of Washington.
India, over years, has decreased the defense engagement with Russia, which tunes with the requirements of the waiver probation under CAATSA, said the former ambassador.He continued that it was a requirement for the United States.
India, for its reasons, is diversifying from 70 percent to get to 60 percent dependence on Russia and also increasing its purchase of US weaponry. He stated that the US would give a waiver if the country expanded its relationship with Russia and kept dealing with its strategy and defense.
