MOSCOW, Nov 16, (Asia Free Press): Russia has restored the supply of S-400 air defence missile systems to India, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday citing Dmitry Shugayev, the head of the Russian military cooperation agency, according to Reuters.
“The first supplies have already been started,” Shugayev said on Sunday at an aerospace trade show in Dubai.
He said that India would receive the first unit of S-400 systems by the end of this year.
India says it signed the $5.5 billion deal for five long-range surface-to-air missile systems in 2018 to counter a threat from China.
The United States has imposed various financial sanctions on India under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which names Russia as an adversary alongside North Korea and Iran.
India has stated that it has strategic partnerships with the US and Russia, but Washington informed India that a CAATSA waiver was improbable.
The US under its 2017 law trying to pressurised other countries to stay away from buying Russian military hardware puts India at risk of sanctions from the United States.
However, analysts believes that US could keep eyes close over India deal with Moscow as Washington trying to use New Delhi against Beijing.
In 2020, the US imposed penalties on NATO partner Turkey, invoking CAATSA, for obtaining S-400 weapons from Russia. The penalties targeted Turkey’s most prominent defence procurement and development authority, the Presidency of Defence Industries.
