Diplomatic win for New Delhi continues: Wassenaar Arrangement decides to admit India as its 42nd member

Vienna, December 8: The strengthened and tactical diplomacy of New Delhi has attracted the International community to involve India in major organizations. Earlier India used to follow other nation as but now other countries follow India as it has emerged as the global leader. Now, the elite export control regime Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) on Thursday decided to admit India as its new member.

 

Notably, India has been admitted as the 42nd member of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a global export control regime. The decision to admit India as the 42nd member of the Wassenaar Arrangement was decided at the two-day plenary meeting of the grouping in Vienna.

"Wassenaar Arrangement participating states reviewed the progress of a number of current membership applications and agreed at the plenary meeting to admit India which will become the Arrangement's 42nd participating state as soon as the necessary procedural arrangements for joining the WA are completed," the grouping said in a statement.

India will become the Arrangement's 42nd participating state as soon as the necessary procedural arrangements for joining the WA are completed. However, India's entry into the Wassenaar Arrangement would enhance its credentials in the field of non-proliferation despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Wassenaar Arrangement membership will build up a strong case for India's entry into the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Importantly, China, who stalled India's entry into the 48-nation NSG is not a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement.

In June last year, India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), another key export control regime, as a full member. Since its civil nuclear deal with the US, India has been trying to get into export control regimes such as the NSG, the MTCR, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement that regulate the conventional, nuclear, biological and chemicals weapons and technologies.

French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler congratulated India on "joining" the Wassenaar Arrangement. "One more recognition, after MTCR, of the growing role India plays in today's world," he said.

The next regular plenary meeting of WA will be held in Vienna in Austria in December 2018, it was announced. Interestingly, the Wassenaar Arrangement plays a significant role in promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. Its member countries are required to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities which undermine these goals. The aim is also to prevent the acquisition of these items by terrorists.