an off-the-record conversation, a
senior air force commander uses
the word ‘game-changer’ three
times to refer to the Russian
S-400 long-range missile system.
“The system can knock down
anything that flies, at a range of
nearly 400 kilometres,” he says. In Washington, suspense
over a different game—to persuade India from not going
ahead with a proposed $4.5 billion (Rs 39,000 crore) buy
of five S-400 missile systems—ended with the US Senate
and House on July 24 finally passing a modified version of
a bill that allows India to buy the Russian weapon system
without the threat of US sanctions.
As late as July 21, it appeared India would attract US
sanctions under what is called the Countering America’s
Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The bill,
which came into effect this year, penalises countries doing
business with arms firms in Russia, North Korea and
Iran. The US state department issued a statement terming
the S-400 sale as ‘potentially sanctionable activity’. In the
end, Indian officials say, it was US defense secretary James
Mattis, an ardent proponent of a CAATSA waiver for In-
dia, who prevailed over the US state department.
The Modi government’s gambit of digging its heels
in seems to have paid off. Modifications to Section 231
of CAATSA enable the US president to waive sales like
the S-400 to protect US alliances, like the one it has with
India. “The deal is almost at a conclusive stage,” defence
minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the media recently.
It is hard to recall the last time the acquisition of a
single weapon system by India became such a huge foreign
policy challenge as it has with the S-400. Sitharaman
recently said the Indian side had conveyed to the US that
India had time-tested relations with Russia, the S-400
deal was being negotiated for several years and that
CAATSA was a US law and not a UN law, implying it did
not apply to India.By Sandeep Unnithan
INDIA HEAVES A SIGH OF RELIEF AS US
RELENTS ON ITS PURCHASE OF THE
S-400 RUSSIAN AIR DEFENCE MISSILE
SYSTEM THAT THE IAF NEEDS BADLY
IN
THE
GEOPOLITICAL
MISSILE
THE BIG STORY S-400
SPUTNIK