Yashwant Raj  

US President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law on Monday a defence spending legislation that will allow India to go ahead with a $4.5-billion to buy five S-400 air defence systems from Russia without the fear of sanctions.

India wants to buy Russian S­400 air defence system.

The National Defense Authorization Act 2019, passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, grants conditional waivers from unintended sanctions mandated by an existing law to third party countries, such as India, doing significant business transactions with Russia.

The bill was passed after a “conference”, during which a joint committee of the two houses reconciled legislations passed separately by them and finalised a text both agreed to.

The White House has announced Trump’s intent to support the bill.

With Trump set to sign it, Indian diplomats, policy and think tank experts and lobby groups should feel relieved that months of tireless efforts had paid off.

The bill amends the Combating America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which seeks to punish Russia for the 2016 election meddling, and also threatened sanctions against third-party countries making “significant transactions” with designated Russian entities in military and intelligence.

This would have left India open to secondary or unintended sanctions for its plans to purchase the S-400 air defence systems.

yashwant.raj@hindustantimes.com

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: 11 Aug 2018