India could face US Military sanctions: Officials
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NEW DELHI - India could face US sanctions for purchasing high value military defence items, in particular state-of-the-art S - 400 Missile Defence System, from Russia under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
Section 231 of CAATSA mandates secondary sanctions on those who conduct significant transactions with the Russian defence and intelligence sectors, PTI has reported.
These sanctions are intended to target Russia - not India," Joe Felter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia, told PTI.
India is currently in advance stage of negotiations with Russia for five S-400 system <link> worth an estimate USD 4.5 billion. The air defence system includes radar, missile launchers and command center technology.
According to some lawmakers, the latest Indian move to purchase S-400 air defence missile <link> from Russia could be considered as a sanctionable activity.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar also expressed their concerns over this during their US visit last month.
"We totally appreciate Indians concerns. It was raised in discussions during senior level meetings last month. We also are very concerned because we very much hope to maintain the momentum and the trajectory of this relationship. We want to deepen our cooperation and not to reduce it," Joe Felter said.
CAATSA was signed into law in August 2017 and went into effect in January this year. The law mandates the Trump administration to punish entities engaging in significant transaction with the defence or intelligence sectors of Russia.
"We are concerned about anything that's going to make it more difficult for us to cooperate. But it's just out of our hands this legislation. I can't anticipate what will actually happen. Any decision to impose sanctions is made outside of DoD," Mr Felter said.
"We are committed to building our relationship and keeping it on the current trajectory. We appreciate that that defence trade is a key activity to build this partnership. We will continue to work diligently to maintain the positive trajectory we are on with this relationship and ideally deepen and expand our defence trade," he said.
Referring to the growth in India US bilateral defence trade from almost zero to USD 15 billion, Felter said there was tremendous growth potential for the bilateral ties.
Atman Trivedi, a former State Department official under the previous Obama Administration said that triggering of sanctions on India because of S-400 deal would "undermine serious American interests".
"Too much is at stake to allow individual defence transactions to damage a budding relationship with a promising partner like India. Before it's too late, the two countries should quietly work together to find other arrangements to address India's defence requirements," he added.