​India joins Missile Technology Control Regime. Top 5 things to know

The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) has officially declared India’s membership, stating that as a new member India will be entitled to “full participation” in organisational activities including the October 2016 plenary of the regime which will take place in South Korea. “As all formal procedures for membership have now been finalised, the Chairman of the joint Netherlands-Luxembourg

Chairmanship of the Missile Technology Control Regime, Ambassador Piet de Klerk (NL), in close consultation with the French MTCR Point of Contact, is pleased to announce today that the Republic of India now formally is the 35th member of the Regime,” said an official statement issued by the Chair of the MTCR from The Hague, Netherlands. The declaration came within minutes of Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar attending a brief official ceremony at the South Block which was attended by the ambassadors of Netherlands, Luxembourg and the ambassador-designate of France.

“India’s entry into the regime as its thirty-fifth member would be mutually beneficial in the furtherance of international non-proliferation objectives,” said the Ministry of External Affairs in a statement after the ceremony. The official declaration from the MTCR Chair further said,“The MTCR welcomes India into the Regime, convinced that its membership will strengthen the international efforts to prevent proliferation of delivery systems [ballistic missiles or unmanned aircraft] capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction”. India had firmed up its claim to MTCR by joining The Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC) earlier this summer.

MTCR: Top five things to know

» MTCR membership will enable India to buy high-end missile technology and also enhance its joint ventures with Russia.

» MTCR aims at restricting the proliferation of missiles, complete rocket systems, unmanned air vehicles and related technology for those systems capable of carrying a 500 kilogramme payload for at least 300 kilometres, as well as systems intended for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

» India’s efforts to get into the MTCR also got a boost after it agreed to join the Hague Code of Conduct, dealing with the ballistic missile non-proliferation arrangement, earlier this month.

» India’s membership had been blocked in 2015 by Italy, which seemed to link it to the standoff over the detention of the Italian marines. With the return of the second marine, Salvatore Girone, to Rome on May 29, the sources said, “Italy is no longer blocking the consensus.”

» China, which stonewalled India’s entry into the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at the just-concluded Seoul plenary, is not a member of 34-nation MTCR.