Wassenaar Arrangement

The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, also known simply as the Wassenaar Arrangement, is a multilateral export control regime governing the international transfer of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. It was established on 12 July 1996 in Wassenaar, Netherlands as the successor to the Cold War–era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom), which restricted certain goods to the Eastern Bloc.

The Wassenaar Arrangement was established to "contribute to regional and international security and stability by promoting transparency and greater responsibility" among participating states, which coordinate their national policies to ensure certain technologies are not transferred or otherwise diverted to countries that undermine these goals. There are 42 participating states, including many former Comecon (Warsaw Pact) countries such as Russia. A secretariat for administering the agreement is based in Vienna, Austria.

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; like CoCom, it is not a treaty and therefore not legally binding. Every six months, member countries voluntarily exchange information on deliveries of conventional arms to non-Wassenaar members that fall under eight broad weapons categories: battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, large-calibre artillery, military aircraft, military helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems, and small arms and light weapons.