QUESTION

GS

Medium

International Relations

Prelims 2011

Recently, the USA decided to support India's membership in multilateral export control regimes called the "Australia Group" and the "Wassenaar Arrangement". What is the difference between them?

  1. The Australia Group is an informal arrangement which aims to allow exporting countries to minimize the risk of assisting chemical and biological weapons proliferation, whereas the Wassenaar Arrangement is a formal group under the OECD holding identical objectives.
  2. The Australia Group comprises predominantly of Asian, African and North American countries, whereas the member countries of the Wassenaar Arrangement are predominantly from the European Union and American continents.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Select an option to attempt

Explanation

Statement 1 is Incorrect: The Australia Group is an informal, multilateral export control regime aimed at preventing the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons. The Wassenaar Arrangement is also an informal regime, but its objective is to promote transparency and responsibility in the transfer of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. It is not a formal group under the OECD.

Statement 2 is Incorrect: Both the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement are predominantly composed of industrialized nations from Europe and North America, along with some countries from the Asia-Pacific region. They are not predominantly composed of Asian or African countries. While South Africa is a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement (joined in 2006), it is the only African member, and the Australia Group has no African members.

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