What Does India’s Entry Into the 34-Member MTCR Mean?

The Quint explains what India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime means for the country.

India, on Monday, formally joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), according to a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

This represents a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the move comes three days after India’s failed bid for membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The members of the MTCR, an international anti-proliferation grouping, agreed to admit India unanimously without objections.

But what does the entry to the 34-nation group mean for India? The Quint explains.

What Does India Stand To Gain from Becoming A Member?

Admission to the MTCR will open the way for India to buy high-end missile technology. It will also make more realistic its aspiration to buy surveillance drones such as the US Predator, made by privately held General Atomics.

India also makes a supersonic cruise missile, the BrahMos, in a joint venture with Russia, that both countries hope to sell to other countries.

India’s entry to the MTCR will see it emerge as a significant arms exporter in the future.

What Will India have to Give Up?

Entry to the MTCR would also require India to comply with the group’s stringent rules.

Becoming a part of the group will mean restrictions being put on the proliferation of missiles, complete rocket systems, unmanned air vehicles and related technology for those systems capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload for at least 300 kilometres, as well as systems intended for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Step Towards Gaining Entry into the NSG

The MTCR is one of four international non-proliferation regimes that India, which in recent decades has gone from being a non-aligned outsider to a rising nuclear-weapons power, had earlier been excluded from.

Entry to the group set up in 1987 to limit the spread of unmanned systems capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction will see India’s bid for the Nuclear Suppliers group membership strengthened.

(With Reuters and ANI Inputs.)

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