RNS: India assumed the chairmanship of the Wassenaar arrangement’s plenary for one year on 1 January. The 42-member Wassenaar Arrangement is a voluntary export control regime that monitors transfers of conventional weapons and dual-use goods.
At the 26th annual plenary of the Wassenaar Arrangement held in Vienna during November 30-December 1, Ireland’s ambassador Eoin O’Leary handed over the chairmanship to India’s ambassador Jaideep Mazumdar, who is the permanent representative to the UN and international organisations in Vienna. India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement in December 2017 as its 42nd participating state.
The Wassenaar Arrangement is a multilateral system for controlling exports. It encourages openness and greater responsibility in transferring conventional arms and goods and technologies that can be used for more than one purpose by having its members share information regularly.
The regime aims to track such transfers and prevent “destabilising accumulations” of conventional arms and dual-use goods.
In the Wassenaar Arrangement, the plenary is the main group that makes decisions by getting everyone to agree. As the incoming chair of the body, India “remains ready and committed to work in close cooperation with other members to further the Wassenaar Arrangement goal of contributing to regional and international security and stability”, the external affairs ministry said.
Membership of the Wassenaar Arrangement has also bolstered India’s efforts to gain access to sensitive goods and technologies from leading players in the West.
