India thanks key export control bloc for giving membership

India has thanked the Wassenaar Arrangement, that controls the global trade of conventional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies, for making it its 42nd member.

"India has been admitted as a member of Wassenaar Arrangement in the Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary held in Vienna. We thank all the 41 Wassenaar Arrangement member states for their support," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted late on Friday night.

"This is the second diplomatic success for India for the membership of Export Control regimes. We became a member of MTCR (Misile Technology Control Regime) in June 2016," she said

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.

Participating states seek, through their national policies, to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities which undermine these goals, and are not diverted to support such capabilities.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in his weekly media briefing here on Friday that the plenary meeting of the Wassenaar Arrangement held on December 6-7, 2017, in Vienna, Austria, has decided to admit India.

"The necessary procedural arrangements for India's admission will be completed shortly," he stated.

--IANS

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