India to become part of MTCR today

Apart from the NSG and MTCR, India has also been trying to become a member of export control regimes like the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement

India is expected to become a full member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) on Monday. China, which along with half dozen other countries stonewalled India’s bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), is not a member of the bloc.

Entry to MTCR will allow India to sell the BrahMos missiles, which it manufactures jointly with Russia, to countries like Vietnam that have shown an interest in purchasing these. “We applied for the membership of MTCR last year and all the procedural formalities have been completed. [On Monday] Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will sign the document of accession into MTCR in the presence of ambassadors of France, Netherlands and Luxembourg,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Apart from NSG and MTCR, India has also been trying to join export control regimes like the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement. These regimes regulate trade in conventional, nuclear, biological and chemicals weapons and technologies.

The US has consistently supported India’s entry into all these groups after the India-US nuclear deal. Of the MTCR members, only Italy was opposed to India’s entry to the group.

But it dropped its objections after the two Italian marines, accused of killing two fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012, were allowed to return to Italy from India.