Missile Shipments Put India at Risk of Sanctions from US

jpnn.com, INDIA - Russia has started supplying India with the S-400 air defense missile system, said a Russian military official as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

The missile shipments put India at risk of sanctions from the United States.

"The first supplies have started," Interfax quoted Dmitry Shugayev, head of Russia's military cooperation agency, saying at an aviation exhibition in Dubai.

He said the first units of S-400 missiles would arrive in India by the end of this year.

The US$5.5 billion deal was signed in 2018 to supply long-range surface-to-air missile systems. India said the missiles were needed to deal with threats from China.

India is at risk of financial sanctions from the US under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) which names Russia, North Korea, and Iran as enemies of the US for their actions on Ukraine, interfered with the 2016 US election, and aided Syria.

New Delhi said it had strategic partnerships with both the US and Russia, while Washington says India would not be excluded from CAATSA.

Last year, the US used CAATSA to sanction Turkey, their NATO ally, for buying S-400 missiles from Russia.