Recently, the USA decided to support India's membership in multi-lateral export control regimes called the "Australia Group" and the “Wassenaar Arrangement”. 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 assisting 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 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/are correct?

The correct answer is D, because neither statement holds.

Statement 1 is wrong. The Wassenaar Arrangement (set up in 1996 as the successor to COCOM) is not under the OECD. It is an independent body with its own secretariat in Vienna. Its focus is conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, not chemical and biological weapons alone. The Australia Group (1985) is the regime aimed at chemical and biological weapons precursors, and it is informal with no treaty basis. The two do not have identical objectives.

Statement 2 is wrong. The Australia Group is dominated by European and North American members, plus Australia and Japan. It is not an Asian and African group. Wassenaar also includes Japan and South Korea, so the regional description fails for both bodies.

Core concept: Multilateral export control regimes (MTCR, NSG, Australia Group, Wassenaar) coordinate dual-use export controls. Most are informal and non-treaty-based. For Mains GS-3, this ties to non-proliferation and India's bids for NSG and these regimes. India has since joined Wassenaar (2017) and the Australia Group (2018), so the 2011 US support was a step toward that.

Trap: Assuming Wassenaar is an OECD body or that both regimes share the same chemical and biological focus.