International Cooperation and Indian Strategic Trade Management

Abstract

Intense international cooperation at various levels is indispensable for strategic trade management. Over the years, India has been evolving its approach towards non-proliferation and its instrument strategic trade management. Resultantly, its involvement in international cooperation for export control has also evolved. India’s relationship with export control has changed considerably in the last two decades. A nuclear India re-positioned its relationship with export control. India once preferred the Chemical Weapons Convention type of management of sensitive goods a good model, in which commercial transactions and the verification machinery are managed in a balanced way by an international organisation with a wide membership base. Now, India has adopted a mixed approach to international cooperation. It cooperates with the international community in a specialised organisation like the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and in a universal organisation like the United Nations for Strategic Trade Control. India is also engaged with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 for many of its activities. It has started playing an active role in World Customs Organisation activities relating to strategic trade control. Of late, it has acknowledged the influence of small bodies like the multilateral export control regimes operating through understandings and guidelines. India, too, has understood the intricacies of international cooperation for strategic trade control and is greatly immersed in its activities.