Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin is heading to New Delhi to force the Indian government to abandon military cooperation with Russia
US-India cooperation has intensified amid last year’s clashes on the border between India and China. Then Washington handed over drones and equipment to New Delhi.
Austin expects to return from India with contracts to supply combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force and Navy. At the same time, he intends to force the Indian government to give up the purchase of Russian S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems.
Robert Menendez, head of the US Senate International Committee, has instructed the US minister to do so.
“Should India decide to proceed with the purchase of S-400, this act would clearly constitute a significant and therefore sanctionable transaction with the Russian defence sector under Section 231 of CAATSA [Countering America’s Adversaries by Sanctions Act],” Menendez wrote in a letter to Austin.
A similar situation is known to have previously arisen between the US and Turkey. Donald Trump’s administration opposed Ankara’s decision to purchase S-400. As a result, the US excluded Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet programme, which did not reflect well on US-Turkish relations.
At this point, it is hard to imagine India going along with the US. In recent years, New Delhi had been actively cooperating with Moscow in the defence industry despite Washington’s position. Moreover, for several decades India has pursued a deliberate policy of diversifying its arms sources, thus minimising the political and technical risks of dependence on a single supplier.