The Missing Missile Offsets

On October 5, India and Russia signed a $5.4 billion dollar (Rs 40,000 crore) deal for the purchase of S-400 air defence missiles from Russia, the largest such deal between the two countries.

- Sandeep Unnithan

The deal, inked during President Vladimir Putin’s visit for the 19th annual India-Russia summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, affirmed what both sides call a special strategic partnership. The five missile systems, to be delivered in the next two years, is the single largest defence deal since India started importing arms from the former Soviet Union in 1964. The deal affirms India’s willingness to continue its ties with Russia in the face of US sanctions. The Russian missile maker, Almaz-Antey, is one of the entities on the US ban list, the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which came into effect this January. The day after the deal was inked, a US state dep artment spokesperson specifically ref erred to India’s S-400 buy to indicate the US had imposed sanctions on China for purchasing similar missiles from Russia. The waiver authority in CAATSA, the official said, was not country-specific and had strict criteria, evidently belying New Delhi’s hopes that it had got an exception clause for its Russian arms buys. “The waiver is narrow, intended to wean countries off Russian equipment and allows only for things such as spare parts for previously purchased equipment,” he said.