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US Congress Passes Bill to Waive Sanctions Against India for Buying Russian Arms
An official in White House's National Security Council said that the CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system.

PTI

Updated:August 2, 2018, 10:33 AM IST

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Russian S-400 Triumph medium-range during the Victory Day parade in Moscow. (File Photo: Reuters),

Washington: The United States Congress has passed the conference report on National Defense Authorization Act-2019 (NDAA-19), which paves the way for waiver to India from punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA, under which sanctions kick off on countries that purchase significant military equipment from Russia.

The Senate passed the John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10.

Passed by the House last week, the bill, named after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, would provide USD 716 billion support in funding for national defense for fiscal year 2019.

The bill, which now moves to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law, among other things, provides a modified waiver to section 231 of CAATSA.

Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations and sensitive technology.

"The CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system," Joshua White, a former senior official of the National Security Council in the White House, told PTI.

"The legislative language is designed to look very tough, as though the Congress is tightening its secondary sanctions on countries that procure Russian equipment. In reality, the language contains multiple loopholes that benefit India," he said.

"The most significant (such) loophole allows the President to certify that a country is "cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States strategic national security interests". As certifications go, this one is relatively easy to justify in the case of India," White said.

At the same time, it is important to remember that even "easy" waivers can have unpredictable political effects, he cautioned, adding this legislation will require that the administration track and report the degree to which India "is taking or will take steps" to reduce its inventory of Russian equipment.

"This means that neither Washington nor New Delhi can simply point to a long term, historical decline in India's inventory of Russian equipment, but have to identify specific and forward looking efforts to do so. These kind of reporting requirements can become political irritants and can be used by future legislators to exert leverage in unexpected ways," White said.

Anish Goel, a former senior administration official in Barack Obama's White House, and till recently a senior professional staff member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Congress should be commended for providing the CAATSA waiver authority for strategic partners such as India.

"By doing so, the Congress has avoided putting serious strain on the bilateral relationship, put additional pressure on the Russian defense industry, and fulfilled the original objective of the CAATSA legislation. The waiver authority is a strong signal that the United States greatly values its partnership with India," Goel told PTI.

The John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons.

At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber-attacks. Last month, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a letter, asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority.

Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment, he had said.

"The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining an once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis had said.


Source :US Congress Passes Bill to Waive Sanctions Against India for Buying Russian Arms
 
Indians can hate on the West/UK/USA as much as they want, but the fact is Russia is rapidly sucking China's dick with increasing passion.

India-Russia relations are meeting the stone cold fact that they have completely divergent strategic goals around China.
 
Indians can hate on the West/UK/USA as much as they want, but the fact is Russia is rapidly sucking China's dick with increasing passion.

India-Russia relations are meeting the stone cold fact that they have completely divergent strategic goals around China.

Its not a matter of hatred,its just national security. We have no solid reason to hate US. Russia is a long trusted friend who stood with us for quit a long time. They are very straight forward and they do not try to dictate us. The weapons from Russia come with no strings attached. US on the other hand is very unpredictable and it bring out sanction threat at the blink of an eye. The only reason why US gave India waiver in the CAATSA situation is because it do not have much leverage over India, at least not yet. If it had, US would have simply bullied India to accept its terms. In simple words, it is in Indian interest to keep the situation like that and not to concede too much leverage to US.

The rise of china is a reality and nations are adjusting to that reality. Russia, being on the end of western sanctions moved much closer to China in the last many years. Everything is not black and white, Russia's increased relation with China do not mean that strategic relation between India and Russia will be we weakened. Russia have a long border with china and Russia has concerns about the increasing Chinese influence in the former soviet states central Asia and tactically supported our relationship with CA states. Russia do need India as well. It is a traditional friend and one of the major economies who won't join sanctions against Russia.
 
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Its not a matter of hatred,its just national security. We have no solid reason to hate US. Russia is a long trusted friend who stood with us for quit a long time. They are very straight forward and they do not try to dictate us. The weapons from Russia come with no strings attached. US on the other hand is very unpredictable and it bring out sanction threat at the blink of an eye. The only reason why US gave India waiver in the CAATSA situation is because it do not have much leverage over India, at least not yet. If it had, US would have simply bullied India to accept its terms. In simple words, it is in Indian interest to keep the situation like that and not to concede too much leverage to US.

The rise of china is a reality and nations are adjusting to that reality. Russia, being on the end of western sanctions moved much closer to China in the last many years. Everything is not black and white, Russia's increased relation with China do not mean that strategic relation between India and Russia will be we weakened. Russia have a long border with china and Russia has concerns about the increasing Chinese influence in the former soviet states central Asia and tactically supported our relationship with CA states. Russia do need India as well. It is a traditional friend and one of the major economies who won't join sanctions against Russia.

Yeah Russians never come with strings attached. Except misleading maintenance costs, abysmal spare part support, and terrible readiness rates. TOT seems like it's barely accomplished anything. Need the French to fix India's first proper engine. Buy Israeli avionics.

I'm talking about the greater strategic positions. Remember self interests > all and India's and Russia's self interest is diverging. India wants a weak China, Russia wants a strong China.
 
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Indians can hate on the West/UK/USA as much as they want, but the fact is Russia is rapidly sucking China's dick with increasing passion.

India-Russia relations are meeting the stone cold fact that they have completely divergent strategic goals around China.
Actually, China is a better friend than the USA. Russia has given do much of ToT to India that it will be considered a great benevolence. Russia had also given a lot of loans to India before USSR break-up. So, Russia holding up on items during the turmoil of the break-up is not to be considered against them. It was only unfortunate event. It is the ToT and learning that India got which enabled India to make indigenous items quickly
 
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Yeah Russians never come with strings attached. Except misleading maintenance costs, abysmal spare part support, and terrible readiness rates. TOT seems like it's barely accomplished anything. Need the French to fix India's first proper engine. Buy Israeli avionics.

I'm talking about the greater strategic positions. Remember self interests > all and India's and Russia's self interest is diverging. India wants a weak China, Russia wants a strong China.
India wants a strong china to threaten with Petro Yuan and terrorise USA. Weak USA is what India wants.
 
Actually, China is a better friend than the USA. Russia has given do much of ToT to India that it will be considered a great benevolence. Russia had also given a lot of loans to India before USSR break-up. So, Russia holding up on items during the turmoil of the break-up is not to be considered against them. It was only unfortunate event. It is the ToT and learning that India got which enabled India to make indigenous items quickly

I can't read this propaganda. Sorry.
 
Indians can hate on the West/UK/USA as much as they want, but the fact is Russia is rapidly sucking China's dick with increasing passion.

India-Russia relations are meeting the stone cold fact that they have completely divergent strategic goals around China.

Russia and China have been close ever since the SU collapsed. It's only the Internet and increased media focus on Russia making it more apparent.

The problem between Russia and India right now is the Russians have been improving their relations with the Taliban, which doesn't sit right with us. But we need access to their strategic tech because no one else has offered such stuff to us, whereas they need our market, especially after CAATSA. And access to our market opens up other markets as well, so we have a quid pro quo relation. Our defence imports from Russia will continue for quite sometime, until it completely dies out on its own due to increasing self-reliance in India.

Btw, we don't pick sides. So no matter how close the Russians get with China, it doesn't really affect us. They are not military allies, and except for a few hiccups, we don't really have a major problem with China. China's immediate concern is Japan and the US. Russia and China getting close is a problem for you guys, not us.
 
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Yeah Russians never come with strings attached. Except misleading maintenance costs, abysmal spare part support, and terrible readiness rates. TOT seems like it's barely accomplished anything. Need the French to fix India's first proper engine. Buy Israeli avionics.

Russian servicebility is not upto American standards. Anyone will agree on that. May be you misunderstood the 'strings' I was talking about. We do not have to sign any agreements apart from purchase agreement to get weapons from Russia, we won't be bothered by the Russians about 'Interoperatabily' bullshit if we decide to buy any weapons from a country they consider as their competitor, we don't need to worry about sanction in the middle of a war from the Russian side, these are the kind of strings I was talking about. And yes, we locally manufacture most of the major weapon systems we bought from Russia. They have no reservations to provide us Aircraft carrier, Nuclear subs etc and they did assisted us in building our Nuclear submarines.


I'm talking about the greater strategic positions. Remember self interests > all and India's and Russia's self interest is diverging. India wants a weak China, Russia wants a strong China.

We do not necessarily want a weak China. We just do not want a hostile China. Both are fundamentally different.China is not an eternal/civilisational enemy of India. We prefer weak hostile China than a strong hostile China, but on the other hand we do not have any problem with a strong neutrel China or strong friendly China. May be we will see betterment of Indo-China relations. Who knows? Three decades back, Russians and Chinese were at each other's neck, but not anymore. India always aspired for a friendly neighborhood and friendly relationship with China. That is why we are partnering with them in SCO, BRICS, Climate change, new chinese dominated Asian development bank etc.

Russians have interests in India just like they have in China. Both are not mutually exclusive. The scope of partnership is not decreasing, it's just increasing.
 
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EDIT: I think you are confusing India with Pakistan.
USA is a big enemy of India. The problem of Pakistan was propped up by USA defence alliance. Everything from khalistan to kashmir genocide had USA hand. One must not consider USA as friend. On the other hand, China is reasonable country. India provoked China with Tibet separatists and that was Indian fault. If India stops its Tibet policy, China will not be a threat to India. USA, on the other hand has imperial attitude. You are either a slave or an enemy attitude. SO, USA has to be destroyed.
 
USA is a big enemy of India. The problem of Pakistan was propped up by USA defence alliance. Everything from khalistan to kashmir genocide had USA hand. One must not consider USA as friend. On the other hand, China is reasonable country. India provoked China with Tibet separatists and that was Indian fault. If India stops its Tibet policy, China will not be a threat to India. USA, on the other hand has imperial attitude. You are either a slave or an enemy attitude. SO, USA has to be destroyed.

  • It wasn't US that assisted Pakistan in acquiring nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them. It was China.
  • In the future when Pakistan acquires a limited survivable nuclear deterrent (submarine-based nukes), it won't be because of US. It'll be because of China.
  • It's not the US that claims sovereign Indian territory (Arunachal Pradesh) as part of itself. Its China.
  • It wasn't the US that fought a big war and several smaller conflicts with India. It was China.
  • It isn't US that is occupying Aksai Chin, is in illegal possession of Shaksgam Valley, and was involved in a standoff with Indian troops in Doklam. It was China.
  • It isn't US that is building an Economic Corridor through territory that is legally claimed by India (by means of the 1947 Instrument of Accession), visibly undermining our territorial claims. It's China.

And despite all this if you think of China as "a reasonable country", then you are simply irreconcilably stupid and have a terribly skewed worldview.

During the Cold War years the world was heavily polarized. India was more or less in the Soviet bloc and Pakistan wasn't. So what would the successive US government leadership be supposed to do? Act in their own self-interest. Which is what they did by supporting Pakistan over India.

And that is the same thing we did when we opposed China over the Tibet issue. The PLA, through its forceful occupation, subjugation and annexation of Tibetan land, was poised to position itself firmly on India's borders. We acted in our own self-interest.

Now, if you think acting in one's self-interest is wrong, that would either mean you are 12 years old, or have the mind of a 12-year-old.

I suppose now you will claim India should relinquish any and all claims on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir so as to accommodate and please the Chinese?

I have to ask, honestly....how much is the CPC paying you to come up with these ideas? Or is it indentured servitude?
 
Indians can hate on the West/UK/USA as much as they want, but the fact is Russia is rapidly sucking China's dick with increasing passion.

India-Russia relations are meeting the stone cold fact that they have completely divergent strategic goals around China.

India haven't bought anything from Russia in this term..

Even after the waiver , they ll dilly dally and leave for the next term to decide ..
 
Can anyone post the weapons deal we signed with foreign country in this Governmnet term.?


I ll start with a few , correct me if I am wrong .. & add to it anything more ..

USA
1. Replacement of crashed C 130 J
2. Lone globe master
3. M777 guns
4. Apache for IAF & IA
5. Chinook
6. P8I

Israel
1.Aesa for Jaguars
2.Barak 8
3.MFstar ?


France
1. Rafale
2. Meteor

South Korea
1. Vajra SPA