*New York: **New developments over US Military sanctions against India onRussian Missile defence system S – 400 purchase.*
A senior US official has hinted that Washington may not impose sanctions onIndia for buying the Russian Triumf S-400 missile defence system butrequire New Delhi to tighten defence technology security to preventsnooping by Moscow.
The State Department official, who addressed Turkey buying the RussianS-400 missile defence system, did not directly address India acquiring thesame system when it was raised during a briefing on Thursday but brought upsecurity issues in cooperating with India.
The State Department approved the USD billion sale of advanced MK 45 5inch/62 caliber (MOD 4) navy guns to India this week even though India hadpaid the Russian contractor $800 million as an advance in August for fiveS-400 units valued at about $5.4 billion.
This and the official`s response appeared to leave room for India to get awaiver from the Countering America`s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act(CAATSA), which could be applied to India for buying equipment from Russiancompanies. CAATSA bans countries from buying equipment worth more than $15million from defence Russian companies listed under it and imposessanctions against them.
The US has not yet introduced CAATSA sanctions against Turkey, a NATOpartner, but has refused to provide it with the advanced F-35 stealthcombat jets.
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India is not seeking such advanced armaments from the US at this time.
President Donald Trump warned Turkish President Recep Erdogan during hisrecent visit that the Russian deal is going to put it at risk of sanctions.
But the official said: “The timeline on CAATSA sanctions is not prescribedor absolute. There is still plenty of scope that could be applied as towhere sanctions and the breadth and depth of sanctions could be imposedupon Turkey.”
