S-400 deal with Russia focus area for sanctions: warns US ahead of Putin's visit to India

WASHINGTON: The US has urged its allies to forgo transactions with Russia, warning that the S-400 missile defence system that India intends to buy would be a "focus area" for it to implement punitive sanctions against a nation undertaking "significant" business deals with the Russians.

The US administration is required under a domestic law, Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act or CAATSA to impose sanctions on any country that has “significant transactions” with Iran, North Korea or Russia.

The Act primarily deals with sanctions on Russian interests such as its oil and gas industry, defence and security sector, and financial institutions, in the backdrop of its military intervention in Ukraine and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US Presidential elections.

"We urge all of our allies and partners to forgo transactions with Russia that would trigger sanctions under CAATSA," a State Department Spokesperson said on Wednesday when asked about India's plan to purchase multi-billion S-400 missile defense system from Russia.

"The Administration has indicated that a focus area for the implementation of CAATSA Section 231 is new or qualitative upgrades in capability - including the S-400 air and missile defense system," the spokesperson said.

According to a media report, India and Russia will sign a deal for the multi-billion dollar S-400 surface-to-air missile system this week.

Moscow has been negotiating to sell the S-400 long-range surface-to-air missiles to India for months.

The signing of the deal for Moscow's most advanced air defence system will be overseen by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is visiting New Delhi on October 4-5 for the annual India-Russia summit, the report said quoting a top Kremlin official said.

"The President is trying to develop a relationship and change that, but we've not been successful, at least to date," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC news in an interview.

In September, a senior administration official told reporters that purchase of major military system like multi-billion S-400 missile defense system would be considered as a "significant transaction and thus has a potential" for CAATSA sanctions.

The official emphasized that the ultimate target of these sanctions was Russia.

The CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defence capabilities of any particular country.

"They are instead aimed at imposing costs upon Russia in response to its malign activities," the official had said.

India is the world's biggest arms importer and is undergoing a $100-billion upgrade of its ageing hardware, much of it of Soviet vintage including MiG jets that have frequently crashed in the Indian countryside.

Russia and India have had warm ties since Stalin died in 1953.

But annual Russia-India trade has slipped below $10 billion since 2014, as Modi cultivated closer diplomatic and economic ties with Washington, while Russia has courted Pakistan and China.

Ties received a boost last year when Modi and Putin held a fruitful annual bilateral summit, followed by meetings in Astana and at the G20 in Germany. They also met in Sochi this year.

On the strategic front, Russia helped India become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation this year and has backed New Delhi's long-held demand for a permanent UN Security Council seat.

Moscow is also pushing for India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries controlling access to nuclear technology.