TEHRAN (FNA)- The US-India defense ties will be put at risk should NewDelhi purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems, a senior Americandiplomat warned, noting that India should think very carefully about makingsuch strategic choices.
“At a certain point, a strategic choice has to be made about partnershipsand a strategic choice about what weapons systems and platforms a countryis going to adopt,” Alice Wells, US principal deputy assistant secretaryfor South and Central Asia, said this week at the hearings on US interestsin South Asia and the budget for the fiscal year 2020, RT reported.
India’s procurement of the S-400s “effectively could limit India’s abilityto increase our own interoperability”, she stated, explaining thatWashington has “serious concerns” about the implications of the $5 billiondeal signed with Russia in October on India-US defense ties.
“There is no blanket waiver, or a country waiver when it comes to S-400,”she added.
Washington wants to capture India’s arms market, the diplomat told HouseForeign Affairs Subcommittee for Asia, noting that US is now willing tosell equipment that previous administrations had refused to consider.
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“Under the Trump administration, we’ve been very clear that we’re ready tohelp meet India’s defense needs and we are seeking a very different kind ofdefense partnership building on the ‘Major Defense Partner’ designationthat India has received from Congress,” she noted.
Securing new military deals is one of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s toppriorities when he heads to India later this month, amid high tradetensions between both countries. Earlier this week, Pompeo stated thatLockheed Martin’s F-21 and Boeing’s F/A-18 fighter offerings will be on thetable. There had even been speculations that the US could offer the SouthAsian nation its fifth generation F-35 jets if only New Delhi would scrapits S-400 purchase.
The Trump administration is engaged in a global offensive trying to forcecountries, most notably India and Turkey, out of their defense deals withMoscow. Both Ankara and New Delhi have repeatedly slammed the Americancoercive diplomacy, stressing that Washington has no right to dictate itsterms to sovereign nations when it comes to matters of national security.
