How The Americans Will Get Out Of Their Self Created CAATSA web ? India Not Ready To Oblige
New Delhi gave a loud and clear message to the American Cowboy and his bully band that it will stand its ground, USA may take and bury its CAATSA somewhere else. This was “heard and understood” by the US administration. India went ahead to sign its accord to buy the S-400 missile defence system for Rs 40000 Crores from Russia.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in October, showing no response to US tantrums of sanctions on countries buying Russian military equipment. The sanctions were part of American measures to” punish” Moscow for its actions in Ukraine in 2014. Donald Trump’s administration had similarly imposed sanctions on China’s military last year over Beijing’s purchase of the S-400 and other military hardware……to what effect, no one knows, at least not the Chinese or the Russians or the Indians.
USA has also warned NATO member Turkey of sanctions for buying the S-400, and has suspended Turkey’s participation in a US jet programme.
At the same time Washington knows that it needs India badly to balance out China, which is challenging the Sole Super Power Status of USA everywhere. “In the case of S-400 we have expressed ourselves the Americans loud and clear… That has been heard and understood,” Sitharaman said. Negotiations with Moscow, a longstanding supplier to India’s military, on the S-400 had began quite sometime back and no funny stuffs like the US sanctions can derail it.
Before the deal was inked, Washington press talked on India’s efforts to obtain a waiver from the US Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), even when India had made no such attempts. India simply stated that internal laws of USA had no clearance from Indian customs to enter India. The American Congress was caught in its own web.
when India has gone ahead to buy S400, the funny cowboys are saying that Upgrades in arms systems “including the S-400 air and missile defense system” would be a particular focus for CAATSA, a US State Department spokesperson was quoted. As if India cares. We will buy whatever we want from wherever we can get it and no one can dictate to us in these matters.
Now Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, told a hearing in March that Washington wanted to “work through” the problem, calling India “an important emerging strategic partner.
He added however that India’s contract with Russia has not been completed and that the US was “very keen to see (India) make an alternative choice (to the S-400) and we are working with them to provide potential alternatives.” Please donot make such stupid announcements. Our response will be ” Well partner Schriver, you gotta do it yourself, Indians will not come to your assistance.
In 2017 India and China had a military standoff over a Himalayan plateau claimed by both Beijing and Bhutan, a close ally of India. Since then China and India have sought to patch up relations, including at a meeting between Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan, China in April 2018. For better relations between India and China, USA is not needed. It is the USA which needs India for various things.
“Sometimes there are differences and you have a face-off,” Sitharaman said. “But our attempt, particularly after the prime minister’s Wuhan meet with the Chinese president, our attempt has been that these differences… cannot be allowed to become disputes. India has particular objections about a series of projects passing through Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a territory under illegal occupation of Pakistan which, India will get vacated one day.
China has also blocked efforts to put on a UN sanctions blacklist the leader of a Pakistan-based militant group that claimed a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir on February 14 that killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops.
New Delhi has reportedly declined a Chinese invitation to take part in an OBOR forum in China later this month. “Areas which are ours legally, which are under illegal occupation of Pakistan, are the ones which are becoming part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” Sitharaman said.”So having made that position very clear, we have not participated in anything to do with OBOR, and we stick to that position,” she said.
The Himalyan Stand Off, the OBOR, the Maldives Crisis, the SriLankan port, the Chahbahar Port, the BIMSTEC initiative, all have shown the world that India can stand its own ground against China and will not run away like others. Americans too have noted this and know that they need India.