Wassenaar Arrangement decides to admit India as 42nd member

The Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), a multilateral export control regime, on Friday decided to admit India as its new member during its two-day plenary session in Vienna, Austria.

"The Plenary meeting of the Wassenaar Arrangement held on December 6 - 7 in Vienna, Austria, has decided to admit India, which will become the Arrangement's 42nd participating state. The necessary procedural arrangements for India's admission will be completed shortly," India's Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a press briefing here on Friday.

After the completion of procedural works, India will become the group's 42nd member and work with the rest towards ensuring transparency in defence deals, comprising transfer of arms and dual-use of goods and technologies.

The group promotes transparency so that the ammunition going to the destination country do not disturb the security balance in the region of the recipient nation, said Kumar.

He said that India's WA membership is expected to facilitate high technology tie-ups with Indian industry and ease access to high-tech items for our defence and space programmes.

"While membership of the Arrangement would not automatically entail any preferential treatment from other WA members it would create the grounds for realignment of India in the export control policy framework of other WA members including eligibility for certain licensing exceptions," he added.

India s entry into the WA would be mutually beneficial and further contribute to international security and non-proliferation objectives.

The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, commonly known as the Wassenaar Arrangement, is a multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 42 participating states including many former Comecon (Warsaw Pact) countries.

It was established 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 destabilizing accumulations.

India is a member of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) while it is yet to gain entry into the Australia Group and the NSG, where country's bid has been repetitively stonewalled by a small group led by China.