Boost for NSG membership, India joins Australia Group

After gaining entry into two export control regimes - MTCR and Wassenaar, India today joined the Australia Group (AG), which seeks to ensure that exports do not contribute to the development of chemical or biological weapons.

"On 19 January 2018 India formally became the 43rd member of the Australia Group (AG), the cooperative and voluntary group of countries working to counter the spread of materials, equipment and technologies that could contribute to the development or acquisition of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) by states or terrorist groups," the AG said in a release.

India is now a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement and now the Australia Group, three of four non-proliferation regimes. The only one remaining is the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which is stonewalled due Chinese objections.

Reacting to India's entry to the group, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Ravish Kumar said it would be "mutually beneficial and to help in non proliferation".

He said the AG membership will help in establishing India's credentials further.

Australian Group is a cooperative and voluntary group of countries working to counter the spread of materials, equipment and technologies that could contribute to the development or acquisition of chemical and biological weapons by states or terrorist groups. In December, India gained entry into WA.

India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016 and the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) last year.

The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies is a multilateral export control regime.

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