Wassenaar Arrangement The Wassenaar Arrangement ( full name : The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual - Use Goods and Technologies ) is a multilateral export control regime ( MECR ) with 41 participating states including many former COMECON ( Warsaw Pact ) countries . It is the successor to the Cold war - era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls ( COCOM ) , and was established on 12 July 1996 , in the Dutch town of Wassenaar , near The Hague . The Wassenaar Arrangement is considerably less strict than COCOM , focusing primarily on the transparency of national export control regimes and not granting veto power to individual members over organizational decisions . A Secretariat for administering the agreement is located in Vienna , Austria . Like COCOM , however , it is not a treaty , and therefore has no legally binding aspect to it . Every six months member countries exchange information on deliveries of conventional arms to non - Wassenaar members that fall under eight broad weapons categories : battle tanks , armored combat vehicles ( ACVs ) , large - caliber artillery , military aircraft , military helicopters , warships , missiles or missile systems , and small arms and light weapons . Control lists . The outline of the arrangement is set out in a document entitled " Guidelines & Procedures , including the Initial Elements . " The list of restricted technologies is broken into two parts , the " List of Dual - Use Goods and Technologies " ( also known as the " Basic List " ) and the " Munitions List " . The Basic List is composed of ten Categories based on increasing levels of sophistication . The Categories are : Basic List has two nested subsections : a Sensitive List and a Very Sensitive List . Items of the Very Sensitive List include materials for stealth technology , equipment that can be used for submarine detection , advanced radar , and jet engine technologies . The Munitions List has 22 categories , which are not labeled . In order for an item to be placed on the lists , Member States must take into account the following criteria : Membership . , the 41 participating states are : Argentina , Australia , Austria , Belgium , Bulgaria , Canada , Croatia , Czech Republic , Denmark , Estonia , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hungary , Ireland , Italy , Japan , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , Malta , Mexico , Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway , Poland , Portugal , Republic of Korea , Romania , Russian Federation , Slovakia , Slovenia , South Africa , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , Turkey , Ukraine , United Kingdom and United States . The Arrangement is open on a global and non - discriminatory basis to prospective adherents that comply with the agreed criteria . Admission of new members requires the consensus of all members . To be admitted , a state must : be a producer / exporter of arms or sensitive industrial equipment ; maintain non - proliferation policies and appropriate national policies including : adherence to non - proliferation policies , control list and , where applicable , guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group , the Missile Technology Control Regime and the Australia Group ; and adherence to the Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty , the Biological Weapons Convention , the Chemical Weapons Convention and , where applicable , START I , including the Lisbon Protocol ; and maintain fully effective export control s . Future memberships . During a state visit to India in November 2010 , US president Barack Obama announced US support for India ' s bid for permanent membership to UN Security Council as well as India ' s entry to Nuclear Suppliers Group , Wassenaar Arrangement , Australia Group and Missile Technology Control Regime .