By: Aaron Mehta
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has lined up more than 40 countries who have agreed to a joint declaration on the import and export of armed unmanned systems, in what the US State Department is billing as the first step toward creating global norms for the weapon systems.
The agreement will be formally announced Wednesday afternoon. Defense News first broke news of the agreement, then in draft form, in August.
In addition to the US, signatories include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, , Romania, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.
Titled “Joint Declaration for the Export and Subsequent Use of Armed or Strike-Enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs),” the one-page statement lists five general principals, in line with those established last year by the US, for the import and export of armed drones.
Last month, analysts questioned whether countries would actually sign onto the agreement, in part because the language could be seen as restricting to international drone producers. But Brian Nilsson, deputy assistant secretary for defense trade controls with State, told Defense News this week that the US agency is cognizant about not impacting local industrial concerns.
“We’re not attempting to discourage the development of indigenous industry, but it is a topic that needs to have a specific discussion, because there is a lot of misconceptions and controversy around UAVs,” Nilsson said, adding that he hopes to bring industry into future discussions.
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