Preventing proliferation: India joins missile tech sale group

After initial objection, Italy did not block India’s admission

India formally joined on Monday an exclusive club of countries that control exports in missile technology just a day after complaining about its exclusion from another elite group which governs international nuclear fuel and technology.

Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar signed onto the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) aimed at preventing the unchecked proliferation of missiles and their delivery systems.

In a statement issued after signing the accession document in the presence of the ambassadors of France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the Indian foreign ministry thanked the other 34 members of the MTCR group for supporting its inclusion.



“India’s entry into the regime as its thirty-fifth member would be mutually beneficial in the furtherance of international non-proliferation objectives,” the statement read.

Italy had initially objected to admitting India but did not object within a 10-day deadline after the group’s chair, the Netherlands, wrote to members suggesting India be welcomed.

Admission in the MTCR was seen as the next step for India in legitimising its nuclear energy and missile programmes after it conducted atomic tests in 1998, alarming the international community.

The MTCR restricts the proliferation of missiles, rocket systems, unmanned air vehicles, or drones, and the technology for systems capable of carrying a payload of 500kg for at least 300 kilometres, as well as systems intended for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction.



India also hopes to secure support for joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), despite strong objections from China.

Last week at a plenary meeting of the nuclear group in Seoul, India’s membership to the 48-nation group was shot down after Beijing raised procedural hurdles.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2016.