Obligations sans rights

India's MTCR membership has few new benefits

Last Monday, India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime or MTCR, an exclusive club of 34 countries that aims to prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology capable of carrying above 500 kg payload for a distance of more than 300 kilometres. Understandably, there was much celebration over the signing ceremony held in New Delhi as the government announced that India becoming the 35th member of MTCR would be "mutually beneficial in the furtherance of international non-proliferation objectives". Coming as it did after the tough Chinese stance at Seoul that denied India a possible membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), India's ability to secure the endorsement of all member-countries of MTCR must have provided some comfort to Indian negotiators after the Seoul setback. MTCR is one of the four export control regimes, whose membership India has been seeking since it signed the civil nuclear agreement with the US in 2008 after obtaining the critical waiver from NSG. The other three such groups are: NSG, where the fate of India's membership at present is uncertain, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement - all of which help regulate the conventional, nuclear, biological and chemicals weapons and technologies. There could be yet another reason for India's celebrations. China is not a member of MTCR. India could arguably use its membership clout to block China's application to be its member in the future. Whether this clout would be strong enough to get China to reconsider and withdraw its objections to India's membership of NSG is not yet clear, but some experts do not rule out such a possibility.

The larger question is whether India's membership of MTCR will help it trade more effectively in critical high-technology areas or whether it would allow it to access technologies that are otherwise denied to it, eg, technology for missiles heavier than 500 kilograms and with a range longer than 300 kilometres. MTCR guidelines do not differentiate exports to member countries from those to non-member countries. They also do not entitle a member country to obtain technology from another or impose any obligation to supply it. What this means is that India's joining the MTCR will have little positive impact on domestic programmes for the development of missile or UAV technology, except where national laws of exporting countries like the US make a distinction between members of MTCR and those who are not.

The MTCR arrangement is not a treaty that imposes legally binding obligations on its members except the one that prohibits dealing in missile systems capable of delivering a payload of more than 500 kg on a range of over 300 km. It is true that the membership will also now benefit India's space programme, making it easy for countries issuing export licences for missile systems below the prohibited categories since they would now be assured of India's overall compliance. But experts do point out that India has already developed technologies in areas that were so far denied to it under the MTCR. A reasonable question, therefore, is whether India's signing on to be a member of the MTCR has led to its submitting to voluntary international obligations without securing any rights to access technologies that were so far denied to it.