WASHINGTON: The malign shadow of US sanctions hangs over the informalsummit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia’s President VladimirPutin in Sochi on Monday, with New Delhi becoming a cat’s paw not only inthe scrap between Washington and Moscow, but also in the turf war betweenthe White House and Congress.
Although India has asserted that it will not allow any third country todictate its ties with Russia, the so-called Caatsa (Countering America’sAdversaries Through Sanctions Act) legislation has become Washington’spoison-tipped arrow threatening New Delhi’s long-cherished andlong-nourished defence ties with Moscow which Washington is trying towhittle down.
While assuring New Delhi that it will do its best to avert theCongress-mandated sanctions against countries that have cozy ties withRussia, the Trump administration, pleading that its hands are tied by toughwaiver conditions, is also using it to wean countries such as India awayfrom the Russian arms industry to sell more American weapons.
In India’s case, the immediate efforts are aimed at nixing New Delhi’splans to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems for around $4.5 billionfrom Russia, a prospective deal that is expected to be part of theIndia-Russia defence cooperation talks that will also take into account theCaatsa wrinkle and how to get around it.
On the weekend before his departure to Sochi, Modi tweeted that he isconfident that India Russia tieslink>will furtherstrengthen the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between Indiaand Russia,” indicating his determination to get around the roadblock setup by Washington, with which too New Delhi has an increasingly closedefence ties. The US wants an even closer relationship.
While some US officials have expressed understanding of New Delhi’sdilemma, considering that some of India’s legacy weapons system are ofSoviet and Russian origin and it needs to maintain defence ties with Moscowto keep them operational, others have cautioned that Caatsa isCongressionally-mandated and the administration’s hands may be tied interms of waivers if India goes in for new purchases.
“CAATSA is a feature and we need to take it seriously. The (Trump)administration is always bound by US law. This is a US law. I’m hoping thatnot just India, but all of the partners that we engage with will understandthat we will have to evaluate any potential large defence purchase fromRussia seriously because that’s what the law demands of us,” Tina Kaidanow,principal deputy assistant secretary of state for political-militaryaffairs, told reporters during a conference call on Saturday.