Days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office as the new US president, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Turkey for purchasing the Russian-made S400 Triumf anti-missile system and warned India and other countries about buying weapons made by Russia.
Undersecretary for International Security and Non-Proliferation, Christopher Ford, announced on Monday a series of sanctions under the Fighting American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) against Turkey’s military procurement agency SSB and four senior Turkish officials. It should be noted that Turkey is a NATO ally.
“We hope that other countries around the world will also take note that the United States will fully implement the CAATSA Section 231 sanctions and that they should prevent further acquisitions of Russian equipment, especially those that could trigger sections,” he said.
It should be recalled that in 2018, India signed an agreement worth 5.43 billion dollars for five units of Russia’s S-400 anti-missile system. The Indian government had decided to end the deal despite objections from the United States.
The United States has repeatedly warned India not to buy weapons from Russia, while threatening to impose action under CAATSA and the incentive of an alternative anti-missile system.
In particular, the United States has not yet granted a blanket exemption to India from CAATSA, but has continued to sell weapons to India.
During US President Donald Trump’s visit to India in 2019, he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a $ 3.5 billion arms deal. The deal includes 24 Sikorsky MH-60R Sea Hawk multifunction helicopters and six Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters.
The United States also signed an advanced defense pact, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation, or BECA, in October with India. The signing of these agreements allowed New Delhi to access intelligence through images and satellite data for civil and military use.
It appears that President-elect Joe Biden’s policy on arms purchases by countries may not change much because several Democratic leaders support CAATSA.
Previously, the US had also banned Tukey from obtaining the advanced F-35 fighter jets.
According to Ford, the new sanctions would prevent SSB from obtaining arms export licenses and receiving loans, and the United States would also oppose loans from other sources to the company.
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