Reports suggest that the United States President Joe Biden will allegedly consider whether to sanction India or not under the CAATSA law for its purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia after India abstained from voting in the Emergency Session of the United Nations on Wednesday.
CAATSA – which stands for Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act – is a tough US law that authorises the US administration to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia. It was enforced in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Responding to a question on a possible application of sanctions on India under CAATSA, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu said it was up to the President to decide whether to apply or waive sanctions on India.
Underscoring the importance of the relationship with India, Lu said, “India is a really important security partner of ours now. And that we value moving forward that partnership.”
Lu also commented on the possibility of buying any defence equipment from Russia as it has been made further difficult for any country because of the sweeping sanctions now placed on Russian banks.
India has been one of the thirty-five countries of the United Nations General Assembly that abstained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Security Council had called an emergency session of the United Nations for the first time in forty years in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The request for an emergency session came after Russia vetoed its draft aimed at condemning Russia’s unnecessary and provocative aggression in Ukraine.
QUAD meeting
Earlier today, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had issued a statement claiming that the QUAD leaders will hold a virtual meeting today following their September summit in Washington to discuss important developments in the Indo-Pacific.
PM @narendramodi will participate along with President of USA @POTUS @JoeBiden, Prime Minister of Australia @ScottMorrisonMP, and Prime Minister of Japan @kishida230 in a Quad Leaders' virtual meeting today.
Press Release ➡️ https://t.co/jEFRFrOiGH
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) March 3, 2022
The announcement of the meeting came as a surprise as none of the leaders had flagged it earlier.
However, it was not clear whether or not the Ukraine crisis would be taken into consideration.
