THE NEWS
India has gained entry into the Australian Group (AG), and became 43rd member of AG, a move that will considerably raise New Delhi’s stature in the field of non-proliferation and also help it acquire critical technologies.
ABOUT AUSTRALIAN GROUP
- Australian Group is a cooperative and voluntary group of countries, which are working to counter the spread of materials, equipment and technologies that could contribute to the development of chemical and biological weapons by terrorist groups or states promoting terrorism.
BENEFITS FOR INDIA
- The move will be mutually beneficial for both the countries, India and Australia and will contribute further to international security and non-proliferation objectives.
- With this, India’s position has become more stronger and now, the only remaining group, Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will be more close for India where China has made attempts to stonewall India’s entry.
- The AG membership will considerably helpful for India in establishing India’s credentials further.
NSG & IT’S IMPORTANCE
- The NSG is a group which aims to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation by stopping the sale of items, which can be used to make nuclear arms.
- The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognizes five permanent members of the UNSC as nuclear weapons powers -the US, Russia, China, Britain and France
- This is the only group left out for India where China has been repeatedly blocking New Delhi’s entry.
CONCLUSION
- Since, India signed its civil nuclear deal with the US, It has been trying to get into export control regimes such as the NSG, the MTCR, the AG and the Wassenaar Agreement. India has impressively managed its entry into all three groups, the Missile Technology of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Wassenaar Agreement (WA) as well as Australian Group (AG) despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
