In a significant development for India, export control regime Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) admitted the country as its 42nd member of the organization. Admission into the WA is an affirmation of India’s position as a responsible nation in the arena of dual-use goods and technology, besides transfer of conventional arms. This step will raise New Delhi’s stature in the field of non-proliferation and also help it to acquire critical technologies for its defense and space programs. With the exception of China, all the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are signatories of the WA, which is headquartered in Vienna.

Per the Wassenar website, 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, according to WA, is also to prevent the acquisition of these items by terrorists.

In June last year, India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), another key export control regime, as a full member.

Since its civil nuclear deal with the U.S., India has been trying to get into export control regimes such as the NSG, the MTCR, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement that regulate the conventional, nuclear, biological and chemicals weapons and technologies, reports the Financial Express.

France‘s Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler congratulated India on ‘joining” the Wassenaar Arrangement. “One more recognition, after MTCR, of the growing role India plays in today’s world,” he said.