US President Biden Expedites The Waiver: India American Democrat

Amendment urges Biden Administration to use the authority...

India-specific CAATSA sanctions waiver by the US House of Representatives is the most consequential vote since the civilian nuclear deal. An influential Indian-American Democratic Congressman said, asserting that US President Biden will expedite the waiver because he has the "political mileage" and the backing of 300 members of Congress.

Ahead of the July meeting, the US House of Representatives passed a legislative amendment that approved an India-specific waiver for disciplinary CAATSA sanctions for its investment in Russia's S-400 missile defence system.

While authored and introduced by Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, the amendment urges the Biden administration to use the authority to provide India with a Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver to help deter aggressors like China.

In an official report by news agency PTI, Mr. Khanna said, "The US-India relationship has never been more critical. When you see an expansionist China at an expansionist Russia, I believe this is going to be a defining relationship of the 21st century. And we needed to send a clear message to India that America values this relationship as very important."

The legislative amendment was passed last month by voice vote as part of an en bloc (all together as a single unit) amendment during floor consideration of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA). The legislation is yet to be passed by the United States Senate before it can be sent to President Biden to be signed into law.

"Having the threat of sanctions hanging over India undermines our ability to build that strong strategic relationship. It undermines the ability to strengthen the QUAD with Australia and Japan," the Democrat said.

CAATSA is a stringent US law that authorises the US administration to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections.