Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu said the US Secretary of State had been “in the frontline” of a “pitched battle” to get India on the same page as the US on the Ukraine issue.
Underlining that it would be difficult for any country to continue buying military hardware from Russia after US sanctions in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that in the “last few” weeks, “what we’ve seen from India…is the cancellation of MiG-29 orders, Russian helicopter orders and anti-tank weapon orders.”
When contacted in New Delhi, a Defence Ministry spokesman declined to comment on Lu’s remarks. Lu, who called India a “really important security partner,” was speaking at the Senate hearing hours after the vote in the UN General Assembly on “Russian aggression”, from which India, along with 34 other countries including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, abstained.
Asked specifically if, in view of India’s abstentions, the Biden Administration was considering invoking CAATSA sanctions on Delhi for purchasing the S-400 air defence system from Russia, Lu said he was not able to “prejudge” decisions of the President or the Secretary on this issue, or whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will bear on that decision.
CAATSA or Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act is a 2017 US law targeting Iran, North Korea and Russia and can be invoked against any country or entity that carries out business transactions with them.
In 2020, the US sanctioned Turkey for purchasing the S-400. Delhi signed a $5.3-billion deal for the S-400 with Moscow in 2018, and Russia began deliveries of the system to India in November 2021.
Delhi was confident that the Biden Administration would make an exception for the S-400 deal in view of the expanding strategic partnership with India, including in the Quadrilateral grouping.
However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration’s new sanctions to punish Moscow, and India’s neutral positioning in the conflict have put the S-400 deal back under the spotlight.
“I can assure you that the administration will follow the CAATSA law and fully implement that law and will consult with Congress as we move forward with any of them. What, unfortunately, I am not able to say is to prejudge the decisions of the President or the (Secretary of State) on the waiver issue or on the sanctions issue, or whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will bear on that decision,” Lu said.
