India becomes a fully fledged member of the MTCR or the Missile Technology Control Regime. The official signing of the document acceding to the MTR will be signed on 27 June 2016 in the presence of Ambassadors of France, Netherlands and Luxembourg
It is some consolation after the fiasco at NSG primarily due to the opposition from China and a couple of countries. MTCR membership will enable the state to buy sophisticated missile know-how and also allow it to have a partnership with countries who are leaders in missile expertise.
It is the first entry of the nation into a multilateral export control regime as a full-fledged and equal member. It had applied for the membership in 2015.
Interestingly China, which had thrown the spanner into the country’s efforts to get into the 48 member Nuclear Supplier’s Group is not a member of the MTCR, and experts say that this fact can be used as a bargaining chip against China to remove its opposition to India’s entry into the NSG.
The 123 Civil Nuclear Deal with the US had removed the nation’s isolation and helped it to obtain the latest nuclear power technology.
India is trying hard to get into regimes like Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, NSG, and Australia Group, which has been set up to regulate the proliferation of Nuclear, Biological, Chemical weapons technology.
The only country which was opposing the entry of India was Italy, which was not happy with India’s handling of the Marines who were accused of murdering two fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012.
The two sailors have been allowed to return to Italy, and this helped to remove Italy’s opposition to the country’s entry into the MTCR.
India’s decision to join the Hague Code of Conduct, dealing with the ballistic missile non-proliferation arrangement, earlier this month also helped it smoothen its journey into the regime.
