India will assume chairmanship of the plenary of the Wassenaar Arrangement on January 1, 2023 for a year.

During the 26th annual Plenary of the Wassenaar Arrangement held in Vienna, ambassador Eoin O’Leary of Ireland handed over the chairmanship to ambassador Jaideep Mazumdar, ambassador and Permanent Representative to UN and international organisations in Vienna.

India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement as its 42nd Participating State on December 8, 2017.

Wassenaar Arrangement

• The Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) is the first global multilateral arrangement on export controls for conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use goods and technologies.

• It was established to succeed the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls.

• It received final approval by 33 co-founding countries in July 1996 and began operations in September 1996.

• The name comes from Wassenaar in the Netherlands, where the agreement to start such a multilateral cooperation was reached in 1995.

• The Wassenaar Arrangement has been established in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations.

The Participating States of the Wassenaar Arrangement are:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States.

Key points:

• Participating States seek, through their national policies, to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities, which undermine these goals, and are not diverted to support such capabilities. 

• The aim is also to prevent the acquisition of these items by terrorists.

• Participating States apply export controls to all items set forth in the list of dual-use goods and technologies and the munitions list with the objective of preventing unauthorised transfers or re-transfers of those items. 

• To assist in developing common understandings of transfer risks, Participating States regularly exchange information of both a general and a specific nature.

• The countries are required to report  their arms transfers and transfers/denials of certain dual-use goods and technologies to destinations outside the Arrangement on a six-monthly basis. In some cases, shorter reporting time-frames apply.

• In fulfilling the purposes of the Arrangement, Participating States have agreed to a number of guidelines, elements and procedures as a basis for decision-making through the application of their own national legislation and policies.

• Representatives of Participating States meet regularly in Vienna where the Wassenaar Arrangement has established its headquarters and a small Secretariat.

• The Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary is the decision-making body of the Arrangement. It is composed of representatives of all Participating States and normally meets once a year, usually in December. The position of Plenary Chair is subject to annual rotation among Participating States. All Plenary decisions are taken by consensus.

The Wassenaar Arrangement:

i) Contributes to regional and international security and stability.

ii) Promotes transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies.

iii) Complements and reinforces the export control regimes for weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.

iv) Is not directed against any State or group of States.

v) Uses export controls as a means to combat terrorism.

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