The Sanctions Shadow

A New Us Law Threatens To Cut Off The Booming India-russia Arms Pipeline. Will It Force India To Choose Between The Us Or Russia As A Military Partner?

- Sandeep Unnithan

When foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman travel to Washington next month for the first of the annual ‘2+2’ strategic dialogue with their respective US counterparts Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis, they will have Russia on their mind. Specifically, how to insulate India’s military preparedness from the threat of US sanctions, which has hung a sword of Damocles over the country’s military ties with Russia.

In January, the US law CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) came into effect. The law imposes sanctions on Russia, North Korea and Iran as well as countries buying arms from them.

A senior government official says while the sanctions imposed after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 focused only on Russian firms, CAATSA shifts the US attack to foreign countries doing business with all Russian military firms. This has serious implications for India, one of Russia’s largest defence partners for nearly 50 years. It not only needs spare parts for warships, fighter jets, radars and battle tanks that now make up nearly 60 per cent of its weaponry, the sanctions impact arms deals worth over $12 billion that the Indian armed forces are seeking to counter China and Pakistan.