India joins elite multilateral export control regime

India joins elite multilateral export control regime

India has become a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement, that controls the global trade of conventional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Friday.

“The plenary meeting of the Wassenaar Arrangement held on December 6-7, 2017, in Vienna, Austria, has decided to admit India, which will become the Arrangement’s 42nd participating state,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

“The necessary procedural arrangements for India’s admission will be completed shortly,” he stated.

The Wassenaar Arrangement was established in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations. The aim is also to prevent the acquisition of these items by terrorists.

“While membership of the arrangement would not automatically entail any preferential treatment from other Wassenaar Arrangement members, it would create the grounds for realignment of India in the export control policy framework of other Wassenaar

Arrangement members, including eligibility for certain licensing exceptions,” he said.

“Our entry into the arrangement would be mutually beneficial and further contribute to international security and non-proliferation objectives.”he added.

India’a membership of the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies comes more than a year after becoming a member of the Missile Technologies Control Regime (MTCR).