By Tom Kington and Vivek Raghuvanshi
ROME and NEW DELHI — Italy has blocked India’s application to join a key missile and UAV technology control committee in protest of India’s arrest of two Italian Marines suspected of shooting dead Indian fishermen.
Italy's veto of India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which counts 34 member states and was set up in 1987, was not supported by any other member and defies US ambitions to get India admitted to the club.
The diplomatic spat occurred in Rotterdam at the Oct. 5-9 plenary meeting of the group, whose members agree to work to stop the proliferation of missile and UAV technology capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload for at least 300 kilometers.
Decisions to admit new members must be approved unanimously, which allowed Italy to block India’s entry.
“Italy was not ready to give its consensus to India’s application,” a source familiar with events at the meeting said.
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.”
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