Governance
In news: India to assume chairmanship of Wassenaar arrangement on 1 Jan 2023
- India has also assumed the presidency of the UNSC.
Wassenaar arrangement:
- Established in 1996
- It is a voluntary multilateral export control regime.
- Member states exchange information on various issues like transfer of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies.
- India became a member of the Arrangement in 2017.
Aim:
- To promote “greater responsibility” and transparency among its members in exports of weapons and dual-use goods.
- Controlling the movement of technology, material or components to countries or entities which undermine international security and stability.
- To prevent “destabilizing accumulations”
Procedure:
- Wassenaar members lack veto authority over other member’s proposed exports.
- Its predecessor was the Cold War-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), which was created to restrict exports to the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc.
- The plenary comprising all 42 countries of the group, is the primary decision-making body and is chaired on a rotation basis annually.
- The decisions of the plenary are taken by consensus.
Significance:
- India would be able to prevent arms diversion to terrorists or to sovereign nations supporting terrorism.
- India could play a significant role in democratising access to technologies and processes that can serve as crucial building blocks for the newly emerging defence and space manufacturing sectors in India.
- India is slowly emerging as a low-cost producer of several items in the WA’s control lists.
- Establishing the credibility of the country as a responsible stakeholder in the global non-proliferation architecture.
Source: NewsOnAir
Previous Year Questions
Q.1) What is/are the consequence/consequences of a country becoming the member of the ‘Nuclear Suppliers Group’? (2018)
- It will have access to the latest and most efficient nuclear technologies.
- It automatically becomes a member of “The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)”.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both 1 and 2
- Neither 1 nor 2
