NDAA is biggest change in US-India ties since nuclear deal, says Ro Khanna

1. It includes a Section on enhancing the major defense partnership with India which envisages greater cooperation in intelligence collection, drones and fourth and fifth-generation aircraft. It also includes depot-level maintenance, joint research and development, 5G and Open Radio Access Networks (RAN); cyber and cold-weather capabilities.

2. The Section also asks the defence secretary to explore other areas for expanding cooperation with India, including a description of the challenges, agreements, and authorities that may be required, and also an articulation of security considerations including protection of research and development and intellectual property.

3. The amendment also asks the defence secretary to identify opportunities for the private sector to work with the Ministry of Defense in India.

4. The legislative amendment approves an India-specific waiver for punitive ‘Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)’ sanctions for its purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia. The amendment further urges the Biden administration to use its authority to provide India with a CAATSA waiver to help deter aggressors like China.

The CAATSA were a set of US legislation that imposed sanctions on American adversaries. It is a tough law that authorises the US administration to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia. The US had implemented the sanctions in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections, news agency PTI reported.

Besides, the US House of Representatives also passed a bipartisan amendment to the NDAA that "will protect more than 200,000 young immigrants known as Documented Dreamers".

“Despite growing up here and often obtaining a world-class education at American universities, children of immigrants on employment-based visas are often forced to return to a country they’ve never known — if they turn 21 before their parent reaches the front of the green card line. This amendment is a crucial step to protect these children and keep families together," Congresswomen Deborah Ross said in a press release.

The amendment has been opposed in several quarters. Writing in Heritage Foundation, Erin Dwinell and Simon Hankinson said, "This amendment would set a dangerous precedent and is effectively a backdoor amnesty, just as the left and President Joe Biden’s administration desires. It would take a large group of people and create a legal fiction of age, dependency, and filing dates, all to erase any sort of barrier to permanent adjustment of status."