US President Biden urges India not to impose CAATSA sanctions

In a letter to Biden, Senator Mark Warner of the Democratic Party and John Cornyn of the Republican Party urged the President to exempt India in the national interest, as provided under CAATSA, because it is in the national security interest of the US. .

“We strongly encourage you to grant a CAATSA waiver to India for its planned purchase of the S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system. In cases where the waiver would promote US national security interests, This exemption authority, as written into law by Congress, allows the president additional discretion in enforcing the sanctions,” the two senators wrote.

Warner is the chairman of the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Cornyn is the Senate Minority Whip for the GOP. Both are co-chairs of the Senate India Caucus, the only country-specific caucus in the US Senate.

“We share with you these declining sales, your concerns about the purchase of Russian equipment and continued Indian integration. We would encourage your administration to continue to strengthen this concern for the Indian authorities, and constructively. To continue supporting options to purchase Russian equipment with them,” he wrote.

In October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of S-400 air defense missile systems, despite warnings from the then Trump administration that it would not go ahead with the contract under CAATSA. US sanctions could be triggered.

The S-400 is touted as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defense system.

CAATSA is a strict US law that authorizes the administration to impose sanctions on countries that buy major defense hardware from Russia in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.

In their letter, the two senators wrote that while India has taken significant steps to reduce purchases of Russian military equipment, it has a long history of buying arms from the Soviet Union and later Russia.

“In 2018, India formally agreed to purchase the Russian S-400 Triumph air-defense system after signing a preliminary agreement with Russia two years earlier. We are concerned that the upcoming transfer of these systems will lead to sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was created to hold Russia accountable for its malicious behaviour,” he said.

CAATSA’s provisions, including sanctions targeting Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors, serve as an important tool for the US government to discourage purchases of Russian weapons around the world.

“However, in the case of this current S-400 transaction involving India, we believe that the imposition of CAATSA sanctions could have a detrimental effect on the strategic partnership with India, while at the same time, achieving the intended objective of preventing Russian Can’t be done. Weapons sales,” argued the two senators.

Warner and Cornyn said Congress established criteria to determine the suitability of waiving CAATSA sanctions. Specifically, the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act allows the president to issue a waiver if it is in the national interest to do so, and if it does not endanger US national security, adversely affect US military operations, or Compromises US defense systems.

“We believe that the exemption for India is appropriate for a number of reasons,” he argued.

“First, India has taken significant steps in recent years to reduce its imports of Russian military hardware. From 2016 to 2020, Russian arms exports to India declined by 53 percent compared to the previous five-year period.

“Meanwhile, India has shown its intention to purchase equipment from the United States, with sales reaching USD 3.4 billion in FY10. These are positive trends that show India’s effort to reduce dependence on Russian equipment and its willingness to take advantage of its new status as a Strategic Trade Authority-1 (STA-1) partner,” he wrote.

“Second, we believe that national security is imperative for waiving sanctions. The imposition of sanctions at this juncture could derail deeper cooperation with India in all aspects of our bilateral relationship – from vaccines to defense cooperation, from energy strategy to technology sharing,” he said.

“Furthermore, the sanctions have the potential to encourage critics within India who warn that the United States will not be a coherent and credible partner for cooperation, and the Indian government to reduce dependence on Russian procurement and Russian defence. To thwart the efforts and long-term strategy of the hardware,” the two senators wrote.

“We share with you these declining sales, your concerns about the purchase of Russian equipment and continued Indian integration. We would encourage your administration to continue to strengthen this concern for the Indian authorities, and constructively. To continue to support options to buy Russian equipment with them,” he said.

“We also propose that your administration establish a bilateral working group to identify ways to promote the security of US technology, and a pathway to develop strategies to enhance US-India military interoperability.” We believe these actions strengthen India’s position as a major defense partner and will provide another opportunity to counter PRC influence in the Indo-Pacific,” the two senators wrote. .

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.