India, which took over as the plenary chair of the Wassenaar Arrangement on January 1 this year, hosted over 20 Outreach Partner countries and Participating States at its Enhanced Technical Briefing (ETB) today in Vienna.

This exercise is being undertaken after five years.

The Wassenaar Arrangement Enhanced Technical Briefing shared national implementation experiences and recent developments in Export Controls.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi in a tweet said:

“A key initiative of India as the plenary chair of Wassenaar Arrangement!

“India hosts over 20 Outreach Partner countries and Participating States at its Enhanced Technical Briefing (ETB) today in Vienna.

“Being undertaken after 5 years, the WA ETB shared national implementation experiences and recent developments in Export Controls.”

India assumed the chairmanship of the plenary of the Wassenaar Arrangement on January 1 for one year.

The 42-member Wassenaar Arrangement is a voluntary export control regime that monitors transfers of conventional weapons and dual-use goods.

India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement in December 2017 as its 42nd participating state.

It is a multilateral export control regime that works to promote transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies through regular exchanges of information among its members.

The plenary of the Wassenaar Arrangement is the main decision-making body that operates on consensus.