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Look at alternatives, US says to India on S-400s
The United States has reiterated its call to India and other countries to “forego transactions” with Russia — S-400s in most cases, and specially so for India — that could leave them open to sanctions under an American law and urged New Delhi to look at alternatives.
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The United States has reiterated its call to India and other countries to “forego transactions” with Russia — S-400s in most cases, and specially so for India — that could leave them open to sanctions under an American law and urged New Delhi to look at alternatives.
The Trump administration has offered India Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defense systems as alternatives to the five Russian S-400s that India is contracted to buy in a deal finalized and signed during President Vladimir Putin’s New Delhi visit in 2018. India has shown no sign yet of backing out of that deal despite continuing US pressure, and the Americans are not giving up trying.
“With respect to S-400, I mean, we’re urging all of our allies and partners, India included, to forego transactions with Russia that risk triggering the CAATSA sanctions,” a senior state department official told reporters Thursday at a briefing to preview Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s upcoming visit to India. CAATSA is Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, a law aimed at punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 US elections.
The issue of S-400s did not come up in the official’s prepared remarks about Pompeo’s agenda, which included talks on trade that has been the chief cause of recent friction, and they did not find a mention either in the secretary of state’s recent speech setting up his India visit. The official addressed it in response to a question seeking an update on the conversations taking place about it.
The US has used the threat of sanctions under CAATSA and denial of access to hi-tech American defense technology to dissuade potential buyers of Russian arms. A Chinese military agency was sanctioned under CAATSA in 2018 for buying S-400s and Turkey, NATO ally, has been told it will denied F-35s, the most advanced fighter jets in the armory of the military alliance, if it went ahead with its S-400 purchases.
The official went on to invoke growing defense ties between India and the United States and the “great steps” taken by the Trump administration to “enhance our military interoperability with India” and went on to make a case citing the signing of enabling agreements like LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Understanding) and COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, upgrading India’s access to high-tech defense equipment to match that of NATO allies, and the approval of the sale of armed Sea Guardian, making India the first non-treaty partner to be offered that technology.
“So I think this is the time where we will be encouraging India to look at alternatives,” the official said, referring to the offer of THAAD and PAC-3 missile defense systems. New Delhi is understood to have not responded to those offers yet even as it continues to seek other defense equipment from the United States.
