Washington [US]: The United States on Tuesday ruled out any potential waiver on CAATSA sanctions for India's purchase of the S400 missile defence system from Russia and said that Washington will continue to have a conversation with New Delhi over arms transactions with Russia.
"We have urged all of our allies and all of our partners to forego transactions with Russia, that may risk triggering sanctions under CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act)," said State Department Spokesperson Ned Price on the question of sanction waiver for India.
The comments come a week after India started receiving the supplies of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, and amidst calls from top Republican and Democratic lawmakers not to impose CAATSA sanctions on India. The agreement was signed by the Narendra Modi government for over USD 5 billion.
"We have not made a determination on a potential waver with respect to Indian arms transactions with Russia. CAATSA however, does not have a country-specific waiver provision attached to it," he added.
Price also stated that the US defence relationship with India has expanded and deepened significantly in recent years. "We expect this strong momentum in our defence relationship to continue. We value our strategic partnership with India."
He further said that the members of the US Congress are deeply interested in the ongoing conversation with India.
"It's a conversation that takes place in the context of the defence relationship that is meaningful to us and that is important to both the United States and India, including the context of free and open Indo-Pacific. So I suspect that those conversations will continue," Price added.
Earlier this month, the director-general of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev said that the first regiment of Russia's anti-aircraft missile system air defence (PRO) S-400 will be delivered to India by the end of 2021.
"All the property of the first regimental set of S-400s will be delivered to India at the end of 2021," Mikheev was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Sputnik. He added that the deliveries started ahead of schedule.
READ: US may likely pussyfoot on CAATSA on India
(agency inputs)
