The US House of Representatives on Thursday (local time) passed an amendment which allows for an India-specific waiver for punitive Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanctions. The amendment was authored and introduced by Californian Congressman Ro Khanna who is of Indian origin.
“The United States must stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China. As Vice Chair of the India Caucus, I have been working to strengthen the partnership between our countries and ensure that India can defend itself along the Indian Chinese border," Khanna said while the amendment to the legislation was passed.
The amendment was passed by voice vote as part of an ‘en bloc’ amendment during floor consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), news agency PTI reported.
The amendment urges the Biden administration to use its authority to provide India with the CAATSA waiver to help it deter Chinese aggression on its borders.
While passing the amendment, Khanna said the amendment is ‘of the utmost importance’. “This amendment is of the utmost importance, and I am proud to see it pass the House on a bipartisan basis," Khanna said.
The CAATSA allows the US government to impose sanctions on any country which has ‘significant transactions with Iran, North Korea or Russia’. Following the war on Ukraine, certain sections of Democrats and Republicans have planned to use CAATSA to further deprive Russian president Vladimir Putin of funds to continue his aggression on Ukraine.
There were concerns regarding the deal between India and Russia regarding the five squadrons of the S-400 missile system signed in October 2018 with regard to CAATSA. Earlier, an official from the Biden administration said the US did not make a final decision on sanctions on India regarding the acquisition of the S-400 missile system from Russia.
Khanna also said no relationship is of greater importance to US’ strategic interests than the US-India partnership. “My bipartisan NDAA amendment marks the most significant piece of legislation for US-India relations out of Congress since the US-India nuclear deal," Khanna said.
The legislation says the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) is an essential step to developing closer partnerships between both governments, academia and industries of both nations who can together address the latest advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing.
It said the collaboration between engineers and computer scientists are necessary to ensure that India and the US along with other democracies across the globe foster innovation and facilitate technological advances which are ahead of Russian and Chinese technology.
(with inputs from PTI)
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News, watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
Comments
0 comment