Recently the USA decided to support Indias membership in multi-lateral export control regimes called the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangements. What is the difference between them ? 1. The Australia Group is an informal arrangement which aims to

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Q: 49 (IAS/2011)
Recently the USA decided to support India’s membership in multi-lateral export control regimes called the “Australia Group” and the “Wassenaar Arrangements”. 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 assiting 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 Page 9 North American countries, whereas the member countries of Wassenaar Arrangement are predominantly from the European Union and American continents.
Which of the statements given above is/ correct?

question_subject: 

Current Affairs

question_exam: 

IAS

stats: 

0,33,58,11,15,32,33

keywords: 

{'wassenaar arrangement': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'wassenaar arrangements': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'australia group': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'member countries': [0, 3, 1, 13], 'american continents': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'countries': [1, 0, 2, 6], 'north american countries': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'european union': [0, 2, 2, 3], 'informal arrangement': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'india': [8, 1, 7, 13], 'oecd': [0, 0, 3, 10]}

Statement 1 is incorrect because the Wassenaar Arrangement is not under the OECD, however, the rest of it is correct. It is a real multilateral export control regime, but it aims to promote transparency and greater responsibility in the transfer of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, it does not directly work towards minimizing the risk of assisting chemical or biological weapons proliferation.

Statement 2 is also incorrect as the Australia Group includes a mix of countries from different regions, including Europe, Asia, and North America. Similarly, the Wassenaar Arrangement also has a diverse group of participating countries covering many different continents, including Europe, Asia, and North America, but it is not exclusive to the European Union and the American continents.

So, both statement 1 and 2 are incorrect, that`s why correct answer is option 4 (Neither 1 nor 2).

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