PTI

Washington, March 8

Any sanctions on India underneath the punitive Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for getting S-400 missile from Russia can be “extraordinarily foolhardy”, a prime Republican Senator has informed the Biden Administration.

“There are reports that the Biden administration is contemplating imposing CAATSA sanctions against India, the largest democracy on earth, a decision that I think would be extraordinarily foolhardy,” Senator Ted Cruz mentioned throughout a listening to on pending nominations by the highly effective Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  

Over the final one week, Cruz, who represents the State of Texas within the United States Senate, has mentioned that the bilateral relationship between India and the United States has deteriorated underneath the Biden Administration.

“India is a critical ally across a number of areas, and the US-India alliance has broadened and deepened in recent years. But under the Biden administration, it’s gone backwards,” Cruz mentioned.

“India is not the only country to have voted against us, and against condemning Russia,” he mentioned observing India’s abstention within the United Nations General Assembly vote condemning Putin’s aggression. 

“The United Arab Emirates also abstained in yesterday’s vote. The UAE is a close ally of the United States, and during the Trump administration, was a critical player in the Abraham Accords that fundamentally transformed the entire Middle East, and brought Israelis and Arabs together under American leadership,” he mentioned.

At a unique listening to by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cruz mentioned that previously yr underneath the Biden administration relations with India have worsened considerably.

This was manifested amongst different issues of their newest abstention on the United Nations, he informed Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu.

“I will acknowledge that India and the United States have not voted the same at the United Nations over this past week. I assure you that we continue to have an important dialogue with India at the highest levels to try to narrow that gap and to help India to see the importance that we place on a coordinated message to Moscow,” Lu mentioned.

Over the weekend Cruz tweeted that the Biden administration may be very, very slowly discovering that alienating allies and boosting enemies just isn’t an effective way to conduct overseas coverage.

“All it took were several generational global catastrophes and wars abroad, and 1970s inflation and gas prices at home.”