US House approves sanctions waiver on India’s S-400 missile deal with Russia

The legislative amendment was passed during the floor consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday as part of an en block (all together as a single entity) amendment (NDA), News agency PTI informed of.

The amendment has been written and introduced by Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna and seeks to assert his authority to grant India the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) exemption to help deter aggressors like China from the Joe Biden administration. urges to use.

PTI report informed that CAATSA Authorizes the US administration to impose sanctions on countries buying major defense hardware from Russia. The development was in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.

Ro Khanna, the U.S. Representative for California’s 17th Congressional District, said, “The United States must stand with India in the face of China’s growing aggression. As Vice President of the India Caucus, I work to strengthen partnerships between our countries and Make sure India can defend itself along the Indian-Chinese border. This amendment is extremely important, and I am proud to see it being passed by the House on a bipartisan basis.”

Additionally, Khanna said that there is no relation of greater importance to US strategic interests than the US-India partnership, noting, “My bipartisan NDAA amendment has been out of Congress since the US-India nuclear The most important thing for a relationship is the law. The deal.”

Notably, the law was brought in in 2017 and provides for punitive action by the US government against any country engaged in transactions with the Russian defense and intelligence sectors. It is important to note that in October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of S-400 air defense missile systems despite warnings from the then Trump administration that the contract with You may be invited to proceed. US sanctions. The S-400 is touted as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defense system. The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey under CAATSA for the purchase of a batch of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia. PTI report good.

(with inputs from PTI)

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