New Delhi, October 5; GANASHAKTI: The major attraction of the Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India on October 4 and 5 for the 19th India-Russia annual bilateral summit will be the key signing of agreements, including the multi-billion-dollar S-400 'Triumf' surface-to-air missile system.
The agreement besides its immense strategic importance for India will be a matter of great concern for its second important defence partner -- the United States of America. The US, a nation that must be keenly watching the whole development, recently passed an executive order meant for imposing sanctions on countries violating the notorious Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
Despite President Trump warning to India that the latter's purchase of S 400 missiles from Russia will scuttle its military cooperation with the United States, India decided to go ahead with the deal. Sanctions, if imposed, could stall selling of high-value military defence items from the US to India. Nevertheless, speculations are rife about the possibility of US Congress giving the green signal to the presidential waiver on the agreement.
Moreover, it is not like this is the first time that India is faced with US sanctions, in the past too, on the issue of meeting its energy needs from Iran, India has countered the US' reprimand. But back then, India had managed to make alternative arrangements with Iran to purchase oil in rupees, thus bypassing US sanctions.
The functionality of sanctions:
The US policy of sanctions is applied to the countries with which they are at peace and not in any conflict otherwise and when the US feels it needs to tweak the other country's policies to bring them in agreement with that of the US. It uses its policy of imposing sanctions as a middle way between diplomacy and war. The sanctions are used to bring about suitable changes in the policies of other countries, suited to US national interest. Sometimes economic sanctions with an intention to punish the third country are also applied as the US threatens to impose sanctions on India if it doesn’t stop buying oil and gas from Iran.
