India to assume chairmanship of Wassenaar arrangement on 1 Jan 2023

Tags: International News

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has announced that India will assume Chairmanship of Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) on 01 January 2023 for a period of one year.

At the 26th annual Plenary of the WA held in Vienna, Austria on 30 November-01 December 2022, Ambassador Eoin O'Leary of Ireland handed over the Chairmanship to Ambassador Jagdeep Majumdar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UN and International Organizations in Vienna.

India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) on 08 December 2017 as its 42nd Participating State.

Wassenaar Arrangement 

The Wassenaar Arrangement was established in July 1996 at Wassenaar, Netherlands.  It is a voluntary export control regime of 42 member countries. The member countries exchange information on transfers of conventional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies. 

The main aim of the Wassenaar agreement is to discourage its member countries from exporting conventional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies to countries which are a threat to global peace. 

The WA Plenary is the decision-making and governing body of the Arrangement. It is composed of representatives of all Participating States who normally meet once a year at Vienna, Austria. 

External Affairs' Minister : S.Jaishankar