§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)Noble Lords will wish to be aware of the outcome of the Plenary of the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies which took place in Vienna on 10 to 12 December 2003.
The Arrangement is the only multilateral export control forum dealing with conventional arms. Its purpose is to prevent destabilising accumulations of conventional weapons in sensitive parts of the world by promoting transparency and responsibility in transfers of arms and dual-use goods. The Government believe the Arrangement has an important role to play in improving arms exporting practices amongst its current participating states, and can help to spread good practice to other countries.
The plenary meeting concluded a year-long review of the Arrangement, which has agreed a number of important changes to its operations, including: enhanced controls on conventional arms with special emphasis on strengthening capabilities of participating states to combat the threat of terrorism; increased transparency with the addition of mandatory reporting for all small arms and light weapons (SALW) exports, strict controls on Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) transfers; guidelines on arms brokering; and adopting end-use oriented controls encouraging member governments to impose export controls on certain unlisted items when necessary to support the United Nations arms embargoes. The question of admission of new participating states was discussed, although no decisions in this area were taken at the plenary. The plenary also agreed on the importance of work to explain the Arrangement's merits to non-participating states.
A Ministerial Statement was agreed in the name of Ministers from all WA states and released at the end of the plenary. The purpose of this statement was to reaffirm the importance participating states attach to the Wassenaar Arrangement as a forum for the promotion of peace and stability, as well as to raise the Arrangement's public profile. It reads as follows:
Ministers of the thirty-three Participating States in the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies are pleased that the quadrennial assessment of the functioning of the Arrangement has concluded with several important agreements to advance further the Wassenaar arrangement's non-proliferation and international security and stability goals.We wish to affirm the importance of the Wassenaar Arrangement as one of the pillars of multilateral efforts towards peace and stability. We believe agreements reached in the context of the Wassenaar Arrangement can play a critical role in preventing the diversion of legal arms transfers and in promoting responsible national export control policies for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. In this context, we strongly 44WS endorse multilateral efforts to develop strict controls on the transfer of Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) that continue to pose one of the most serious threats to the safety of international civil aviation.As we look at ahead and consider the future threats to international security and stability, we are convinced that countries committed to a stable international order must work together closely to prevent conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use technologies from being used to perpetrate terrorist acts. Terrorists must be stopped from diverting weapons from legitimate channels. Building upon the momentum developed during the 2003 Assessment, we believe that continued collaboration between the Participating States of the Wassenaar Arrangement will make a significant contribution to global security".The Government will continue to work for further changes to the Arrangement so that it becomes an even more effective forum for the promotion of responsible and transparent exporting practices for strategic goods.