A key Republican Senator has informed the Biden administration that imposing sanctions on India under the punitive CAATSA bill for its acquisition of Russia’s S-400 missile defence system would be “extraordinarily foolhardy.”
Under the Countering America’s Adversaries via Penalties Act (CAATSA), the US administration is required to impose sanctions on any country that has significant transactions with Iran, North Korea, or Russia.
In response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged intervention in the 2016 US presidential election, CAATSA is a strong US law that allows the administration to impose penalties on countries that buy key defence hardware from Russia.
“There are allegations that the Biden administration is considering slapping CAATSA sanctions against India, the world’s largest democracy, a choice that I believe would be quite foolish,” Senator Ted Cruz stated during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on upcoming appointments.
Senator Ted Cruz, who represents Texas in the US Senate, stated that the bilateral relationship between India and the United States has deteriorated under the Biden administration in the previous week.
“India is not the only country that has voted against us and against condemning Russia,” he said, referring to India’s vote against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in the UN General Assembly.
Under the CAATSA, the United States has already placed sanctions on Turkey for buying a batch of Russian S-400 missile defence systems. Regarding US penalties against Turkey over the purchase of S-400 missile systems, there were apprehensions that the US will retaliate against India with similar sanctions.
