New Delhi: In its first entry into any multilateral export control
regime, India will today join the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) as a
full member, three days after it failed to get NSG membership due to stiff
opposition from China and a few other countries.
External Affairs Ministry
spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “We applied for the membership of MTCR last
year and all the procedural formalities have been completed. Tomorrow, Foreign
Secretary S Jaishankar will sign the document of accession into MTCR in the
presence of Ambassadors of France, Netherlands and Luxembourg.”
Significantly, China, which
stonewalled India’s entry into the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at
the just- concluded Seoul plenary, is not a member of 34-nation MTCR. Since its
civil nuclear deal with the US, India has been trying to get into export
control regimes like NSG, MTCR, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar
Arrangement that regulate the conventional, nuclear, biological and chemicals
weapons and technologies.
India’s case in MTCR was
opposed last year by Italy which is not happy with New Delhi over the marines
dispute. However, after both marines, accused of murdering two fishermen off
the Kerala coast in 2012, were allowed to return, the Italians have softened
their opposition.
India’s efforts to get into the MTCR also got a boost after
it agreed to join the Hague Code of Conduct, dealing with the ballistic missile
non-proliferation arrangement, earlier this month.
MTCR membership will enable India to buy high-end missile
technology and also enhance its joint ventures with Russia.
The aim of the MTCR is to
restrict the proliferation of missiles, complete rocket systems, unmanned air
vehicles and related technology for those systems capable of carrying a 500
kilogram payload for at least 300 kilometres, as well as systems intended for
the delivery of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
No comments:
Post a Comment