India enters missile tech group today

India is set to become a full member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) on Monday.The MTCR is an elite group of nations that controls export of missile technology.

Further, India is likely to get another shot at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), with members agreeing to a special session later this year to consider India's case for a membership.

“We applied for membership to MTCR last year and all procedural formalities have been completed. On Monday, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will sign the document of accession into MTCR in the presence of the ambassadors of France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Sunday.

Established in 1987, the 34-member MTCR exercises control on the export of missile technology, which may contribute to the development of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as long distance unmanned aerial vehicles.

Earlier this month, MTCR agreed on making India a member, responding to an application filed in June 2015.

The MTCR membership is likely to aid space programmes, besides assisting New Delhi in its efforts to get Predator drones from the US. However, it may not have any impact on the export of the BrahMos cruise missile as its reported range of 290 km is just under the MTCR threshold of 300 km, unless the missile's range is extended.

On the NSG front

Interestingly, China, which successfully blocked India's NSG bid in Seoul with support from a few nations, is not an MTCR member, though the communist country applied for the membership in 2004.

However, all is not lost on the NSG front. The special session later this year will specially discuss the process for allowing non-NPT signatories like India into the 48-nation grouping that controls global nuclear commerce.

The session was initiated at Mexico’s behest. Though it was opposed by China, it found support from other countries, including the US, sources said.

A panel for informal consultations on India's membership has also been set up by the NSG and will be headed by Argentine Ambassador Rafael Grossi.

The Seoul session ended with a 'path forward' for India's acceptance as a member.

With China insisting on signing the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the criterion for NSG membership, Swarup on Sunday said India implemented all NPT provisions and the global community could never equate India with Pakistan on the non-proliferation issue.

India is not a signatory to the NPT, but enjoys a special NSG waiver granted in 2008 with China’s  support.  “We will keep impressing upon China that mutual accommodation of interests, concerns and priorities is necessary to take  forward bilateral ties,” Swarup told PTI.

His comments assume significance in the backdrop of the Chinese foreign ministry’s assertion that Beijing’s opposition at NSG, which is a multi-lateral platform, will not impact the India-China ties adversely.

Swarup also said that though India did not get “expected results” at the Seoul meeting, the country will continue to make determined efforts to get into NSG.

“There are some processes which take longer, I would evaluate the NSG membership process in that category,” he said India is also trying to become a member of two other export control regimes — Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement.