Threat of sanctions undermines foundation of India-US global strategic partnership
Russia’s announcement that the supply of S-400 Triumph systems to India has already begun has set the stage for the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in early December. It has also given a befitting reply to the US which had threatened sanctions against India. The air defense system deal was signed in 2018 during Mr Putin’s visit. In 2017, the US passed its Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which provides for economic and travel sanctions against countries and officials with significant military and intelligence contracts with Russia, North Korea and Iran. The Modi government has, appropriately, paid little heed to US warnings that sanctions imposed on China and NATO partner, Turkey to buy the S-400, could also be used against India. Contrary to their caveats on similar US threats over Iranian oil purchases in 2019, government officials have insisted the deal is an essential part of India’s defense at a time of challenges on the eastern and western borders. To protect advance payments for the S-400 from US sanctions, India and Russia made their transfers through a rupee-ruble system. Now with the delivery of the first parts of the system, and the first squadron delivery expected to be completed by the end of December, the die has been cast.
The US has a choice not to let the S-400 delivery turn into a confrontation with India. US President Joe Biden has been authorized by Congress to waive sanctions if the waiver is found to be in US “significant national security interests”, or, that India will reduce its future reliance on Russian weapons. While it is unlikely that India will give assurances later, it is easy to argue, as several US Congressional representatives have done in a proposed amendment to CAATSA, that India is a prized US partner – in the Quad, the Indo-Pacific and the Indo-Pacific. China match. Sanctions will create a rift in Indo-US relations and may push India towards Russia. Above all, the US must recognize that its unilateral sanctions, which are not supported by the United Nations, undermine the multilateral system. For example, the subjective and cynical manner in which these sanctions were used, withdrawn and then reimposed against Iran does not inspire confidence in them. For India, accepting such sanctions amounts to becoming a party to a bilateral dispute, and challenges the country’s principles of sovereignty and strategic autonomy. Instead of trying to reason with the US for an extraordinary exemption to its domestic law, New Delhi should make it clear to Washington that the law should be abandoned, as it negates a “rules-based international order”. Which is the foundation of the India-US Global Strategic Partnership.
,