India Will Freeze All Arms Trade With USA If They Impose Their CAATSA : Foreign Laws Are Banned In India
The United States continues to strengthen its defence trade partnership with India and the Arms trade is growing day by day. However, in case the American Administration and the Legislature thinks that they will be able to control and dictate terms to India through penalties related to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) then they are living in a fools world. India will just freeze all Arms trade and import all the essentials from Russia.
Though some media reports suggest that the Americans have realized their foolishness and have provisioned in their legislation for non application of their CAATSA on India. Because whether the Americans like it or not, India is going ahead with its arms purchases from Russia. Merchants selling things to India cannot be dictating their terms to us. In case US Department of State does not have country-specific dispensations under the act then they better obtain it from their Senate, the fastest.
India us not going to be impressed by US officials statement that “While we cannot prejudge whether a specific transaction would result in sanctions, it is important to note that CAATSA does not have any blanket or country-specific waiver provision. There are strict criteria for considering a waiver, and each transaction is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The Secretary of State has not made any determination regarding the significance of any transaction involving India.”
It is in their interest to get their waiver or lose face. India will not bail them out, in fact India will encourage them to save face by making waiver provisions at the earliest.
CAATSA was enacted in 2017 in response to Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election and the annexation of Crimea. Since its introduction the US government has imposed penalties on China and Turkey over their respective procurements of Russian Almaz-Antei S-400 air defence systems. In October 2019 India ordered five S-400 systems for USD5.5 billion.
In the spirit of CAATSA, the US Department of State official urged US allies to cease such military procurements from Russia. “Without commentating on private diplomatic conversations, I can confirm that we urge all of our allies and partners to forgo transactions with Russia that risk triggering sanctions under CAATSA,” said the US Department of State official.
However India has rejected such requests outright.
The American official did not confirm whether CAATSA-related penalties were the subject of discussions between the two governments during high-level diplomatic meetings in New Delhi in late February.
