WASHINGTON – Trump administration has threatened India with toughsanctions, India media has reported.

The purchase of major military equipments like the multi-billion-dollarS-400 Triumf from Russia would be considered as a “significant transaction”and has a potential for imposing tough US sanctions, the Trumpadministration said Friday, as India mulls buying the air defence systems,PTI has reported.

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order, paving the way for slappingcrippling sanctions on countries and foreign entities and individualsviolating the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act(CAATSA).After signing of the order, the US imposed sanctions on a Chineseentity, the Equipment Development Department and its director Li Shangfufor its recent purchase of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400surface-to-air missile, a senior administration official told reportersduring a conference call.

The CAATSA that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia, has thepotential to affect India’s defence purchases as it is planning to buy fiveS-400 Triumf missile air defence systems from Russia for around USD 4.5billion.

“We want to stress that the legislative standard here is a significanttransaction with an entity that appears on the List of Specified Persons.We took these actions because China took delivery of 10 Sukhoi fighteraircraft, specifically Su-25s, in December of 2017, after the CAATSAstatute came into force. It also took delivery of a batch of S-400sometimes known as SA-21 surface-to-air missile systems or relatedequipment in January of this year,” the official said.

The US official, who did not wish to be identified emphasised that theultimate target of these sanctions was Russia.