US must heed India's strategic imperative

Russia has started supplying India with S-400 air defence missile systems. The supplies put India at risk of sanctions from the United States under a 2017 US. law aimed at deterring countries from buying Russian military hardware.

However, in a calculated move, the Modi government has gone ahead with the deal with Russia despite the warnings of the US to the contrary. The first unit of an S-400 system will arrive in India by the end of this year. The $5.5 billion deal for five long-range surface-to-air missile systems, which India says it needs to counter a threat from China, was signed in 2018. The news could provoke the US to go in for financial sanctions under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). This is an Act that shows Russia as an adversary alongside North Korea and Iran for its actions against Ukraine, interference in the U.S. 2016 elections and help to Syria.

India has a strategic partnership with both the United States and Russia while Washington told India it was unlikely to get a waiver from CAATSA. The US has invoked CAATSA provisions on NATO ally Turkey for acquiring S-400 missiles. The sanctions targeted the main Turkish defence procurement and development body Presidency of Defence Industries. Washington also removed Turkey from a F-35 stealth fighter jet program, the most advanced aircraft in the US arsenal, used by NATO members and other US allies.

The S-400 supports four different missiles – the very long range 40N6E-series (400 km), the long range 48N6 (250 km), the 9M96e2 (120 km) and the short range 9m96e (40 km). By comparison the US Patriot system supports only one interceptor missile with a range of 96 km. The 9M96E2 of the S-400 is one of the best and flies at Mach 15 (around 5,000 meters per second or 18,500 kmph), it can engage targets as low as 5 meters off the ground. India needs S-400 systems due to the twin war scenario it faces both on the Pakistani and the Chinese front. The US should understand the Indian needs better. It cannot treat India as any other country. India's need for S-400 is absolute. There is no match for the system and even the US could not produce one that equals it and which could come to India's rescue. It would have been a different scenario if the US had a matching system. India has always preferred neutrality and maintained a 'friendly distance' from Russia and the US when it came to buying defence equipment. It bought whatever suits it better and the US should appreciate it. In fact, imports from Russia had come down of late.

There is no room for double standards on part of the US in this regard. India never did play games with the US as the latter did with India. The Americans always cozied up to Pakistan and kept equipping it with modern weapons to counter its opponents in the Afghan theatre. However, it always knew that the billions of dollars it had been pumping into Pakistan was also used against India. Moreover, it does not need Pakistan any longer as it had withdrawn from Afghan soil. It would be better if the US does not rub India on the wrong side.