Wassenaar Arrangement

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India will assume the chairmanship of the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), a multilateral technology control agreement, on 1 January 2023, for a period of one year.

• India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime, in 2017 and became its 42nd member.

Wassenaar Arrangement

• The Wassenaar Arrangement is an elite club of countries that subscribe to arms export controls, similar to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime.
• The body came into being in 1996 to succeed the Cold War-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls. 
  • The name comes from Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague, where the agreement to start such a multi-lateral cooperation was reached in 1995.
• Objectives:  The goal of the Arrangement is to “promote transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies”. 
  • Participants are required to “ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities which undermine the goal”. The aim  is also to prevent the acquisition of these items by terrorists.

Source:LM