S-400 Triumf deal with Russia was sovereign decision, India says 

A Russian battery of the S-400 Triumf anti-missile system.

New Delhi: India, while referring to the sanctions announced against Russia by the United States and mounting pressure to drop the S-400 Triumf missile-defence deal with Russia, on Wednesday, has clarified that it was a sovereign decision based on operational and technological aspect as well as entire spectrum of security challenges the country is facing. India signed the S-400 deal with Russia in October 2018.

The US has announced sanctions under the country’s “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (CAATSA) against Russia accusing the country for allegedly interfering in the US presidential election in 2016 and have duly expressed concern over India’s S-400 deal with Russia. The US has warned India that the deal will have serious implications on the India-US defence relations.

However, India went ahead with the deal maintaining that the deal meets the US waiver criteria. It has also conveyed to the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, that it will not retreat on the missile deal and will go by its national interest.

Shripad Naik, minister of state for defence, in a written reply to a media query said, “Government takes sovereign decisions based on threat perception, operational and technological aspects to keep the armed forces in a state of readiness to meet the entire spectrum of security challenges.”

The missile system is manufactured by Almaz-Antey and has been used in the defence system in Russia since 2007. India is procuring the system to strengthen its air-defence mechanism. 

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