ROME and NEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0Italy has blocked India’s application to join a key missile and UAV technology control committee\u00a0in protest of\u00a0India’s arrest of two Italian Marines suspected of shooting dead Indian fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy’s veto The Italian vetoing <\/span>of India\u2019s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which counts 34 member states and was set up in\u00a01987, was not supported by any other member and defies US ambitions to get India admitted to the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The diplomatic spat occurred in Rotterdam at the Oct. 5-9 plenary meeting of the group Oct.\u00a05-9\u00a0in Rotterdam<\/span>, of the group, <\/span>whose members agree\u00a0to work to stop the proliferation of missile and UAV unmanned aerial vehicle <\/span>technology capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload for at least 300 kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decisions to admit new members must be approved unanimously, which allowed Italy to use its veto power to <\/span>block India\u2019s entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Italy was not ready to give its consensus to India’s application,” a source familiar with events at the meeting said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The source added that members were aware that Italy’s decision was linked to the arrest of the Marines. “It didn’t come up,” he said, “but it was the subtext, everyone knew.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two Italian Marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were guarding an Italian cargo ship off the Indian coast in 2012 when an Indian fishing boat approached. The Marines claim they fired warning shots, which went unheeded, and they were later arrested and held by Indian authorities for shooting dead two of the fishermen on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case has dragged on, with the Hamburg-based International Tribunal\u00a0Tribune <\/span>for the Law of the Sea becoming involved this year, while Italian politicians have lambasted the Italian government for being unable to free them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to an official account of the MTCR\u00a0meeting, stated that <\/span>“Partners exchanged views on issues relating to future membership. Individual applications for membership were thoroughly discussed. The membership issue will continue to be on the agenda.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “While India failed to receive consensus support for <\/span>for its entry to the Missile Technology Control Regime this month,” an official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said, “India\u2019s application was received well and it remains under consideration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n India formally submitted an application in June 2015 <\/span>with active support from member nations\u00a0the US and France. US President Barack <\/span>Obama first made his support known for India\u2019s entry during his visit to the country in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Originally founded by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, the MTCR has since grown to include South\u00a0members including <\/span>Korea, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rotterdam meeting was chaired by Dutch ambassador at large Piet de Klerk, who will head the group this year on behalf of Holland\u00a0<\/span>the Netherlands and Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Italy has itself fallen afoul of the MTCR. In 2009, it sought to offer the United Arab Emirates unmanned vehicle technologies, as part of <\/span>a deal that was attached to the sale of M-346 jet trainers to the Arabian Gulf state. When the UAV deal was deemed to fall outside the limits imposed by MTCR rules, the jet trainer sale collapsed, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Rotterdam this month, India was not the only country whose entry was not agreed on unanimously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There is a list of new candidates,” said <\/span>the source said.\u00a0Among them, he said, were the nine EU members not yet inside the group: , which include, <\/span>Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The EU is pushing all members to become members of this group and three other groups,” the source said.<\/span>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The other groups are <\/span>the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which seeks to limit the spread of nuclear weapons;\u00a0the Australia Group, which limits chemical weapons;\u00a0and the Wassenaar Arrangement,\u00a0a group of 41 states limiting the use of conventional weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The argument for bringing in the other EU members to the MTCR is that there is a risk that products could be transported there from an MTCR member under the EU’s free market rules\u00a0before they are subsequently exported,” the source said. “On the other hand, one could argue the EU’s export policies should stop such exports anyway. This was discussed at the meeting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Italy\u2019s veto of India\u2019s entry follows the drawn-out entanglement between the two countries over allegations of corruption surrounding the sale of\u00a012 Italian AW101 helicopters to India in 2010 for \u20ac560 million euros<\/span> (US\u00a0$639.2 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giuseppe Orsi, the former CEO of Italian group Finmeccanica, was jailed and tried in Italy, prompting India to cancel the contract. But even after Orsi was acquitted last year, India’s anti-fraud agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), continued its own probe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, properties belonging to brothers of a former Indian Air Force chief,\u00a0S.P. Tyagi, who were alleged to have been involved in the payoffs, have been seized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A New Delhi court last month, following a request from the CBI, issued a warrant for the arrest of British consultant Christian Michel James, who is alleged to have been involved in the helicopter deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the case could may however <\/span>take years before it reaches any conclusion, given the slow track record of India\u2019s investigating agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email:\u00a0tkington@defensenews.com<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Italy has blocked India\u2019s application to join a key missile and UAV technology control committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":84973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":33,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3345,3390],"class_list":["post-45056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"L6VSNP5MLNDGZKAFMZ36FRDWVI","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2015\/10\/17\/italy-blocks-indian-application-to-mtcr\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n