The initiative of the senators and co-chairs of the US-India Commission Virginia Senator Mark Warner (Democratic) and Texas Senator John Cornyn (Republican), to send a letter to US President Joe Biden requesting India’s exemption from CAATSA sanctions, due to the supply of Russian weapons systems S-400 Triumf (2018), is in the right direction and in favor of US interests.
Any decision by the Joe Biden government could also indirectly affect discussions with Turkey.
India and the reasons for its exclusion from CAATSA law
The United States may be concerned about the continued integration of Russian weapons systems technology from India, but this is not so true in practice. India has long had cooperation with the USSR and later with Russia, while over the years it has steadily reduced its supplies of military equipment from Russia and is now turning mainly to France (EU).
It would be a great mistake on the part of the White House to enact CAATSA sanctions against India. India is needed on the geopolitical chessboard of the West for the peripheral encirclement of mainland Asia, which starts from the Black Sea and reaches the Indian Ocean (please read the analyses entitled “The New Axis in the Middle East” & “The Geopolitical Reorganisation in the Middle East“).
That is why it is necessary for the White House to grant a presidential waiver, and as the US Constitution entitles, in the case of India.
The important differences between Turkey and India
However, this White House waiver cannot be applied in the case of Turkey, which has also purchased the Russian S-400 Triumf weapon system and has been sanctioned by CAATSA law.
The differences between India and Turkey are significant.
India is not a member of NATO, as is Turkey, and as a NATO member state implies specific commitments, unlike an independent ally such as India, where sanctions would be an “insult” to ability to make independent decisions, and remove India from the US.
It is a different kind of decision for the USA to refuse to sell its own advanced technological weapons systems in India, due to the presence of similar state-of-the-art Russian weapons systems and another decision to impose sanctions for the very fact of their choice.
The United States has full legitimacy to refuse to release any prior technological weapons system (for example the F-35 Lightning II) to countries that also use Russian and / or Chinese weapons systems, avoiding leaking classified information about their systems.
An analogous decision would be made if the US refused to sell to India the technologically advanced F-16, the F-21, and if the earlier versions of the F-16, in the case of the Indian F-21, have technologies which should not be exposed to the capabilities of the radar of the S-400 Triumf.
On the other hand, Turkey, since it can not acquire the F-35, asks the US for the most technologically advanced version of the F-16 Block 70/72, which may also have information that should not be exposed to the radars of the Turkish S -400, when Turkey is a member of NATO.
So the mistake is to impose CAATSA sanctions in India. Because then the government of India will try to “challenge” it.
