Arms Control and Disarmament
Precision about dates, status and membership is what separates scoring answers here.
Treaties
- NPT (opened 1968, in force 1970): non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful uses; 191 parties; India, Pakistan and Israel never signed; North Korea withdrew. Review conferences occur every five years.
- CTBT (1996): bans explosive testing; requires ratification by 44 Annex 2 states; not in force.
- BWC (1972) has no verification mechanism; the CWC (1993, OPCW at The Hague) does, and India completed destruction of declared stocks by 2009.
- Nuclear-weapon-free zones: Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok, Pelindaba, Semipalatinsk and Mongolia. The TPNW (2017, in force 2021) prohibits nuclear weapons; no nuclear-armed state has joined.
- Export controls: NSG (1975), MTCR (1987), Wassenaar (1996) and Australia Group (1985). India joined the MTCR and Wassenaar in 2016-17 and the Australia Group in 2018, but not the NSG.
Worked example
Why does India reject the NPT? It treats the treaty as codifying a discriminatory two-tier order created before India's capability, and links disarmament to a timebound framework in the 1988 Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan. Reasoning should engage Article VI's obligation and the absence of timelines, not slogans.
Traps
Confusing signature with ratification; assuming India is an NPT signatory; treating NSG membership as automatic after the 2008 waiver; misdating the TPNW's entry into force.