US Plans MTCR Policy Overhaul To Deepen Space Ties With India

The outgoing Biden administration is working on a national security memorandum to revise export control policies under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), aiming to enhance collaboration between Indian and US space companies, the White House said on Tuesday (17 December).

The goal of updating export control policies under the MTCR is to be able to advance commercial space cooperation even further with close partners like India, said White House principal deputy national security advisor Jon Finer.

"We are continuing to take steps to further knock down barriers to private sector cooperation, and importantly, we are in the process of finalising national security memorandum that will update our own export control policies under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)," Finer said, news agency PTI reported.

Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, and Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra visited Houston on Tuesday to meet ISRO astronauts training at NASA's Johnson Space Center for a collaborative International Space Station mission planned for next year.

The MTCR, established by G-7 nations in 1987, is a political framework involving 35 member states to curb missile and missile technology proliferation. India became a member of the group in 2016.

"In practical terms, this would mean that US-based companies would face lower barriers in partnering with Indian companies," Finer said.

Finer noted that India and the US are advancing their national space initiatives while deepening their collaborative space partnership.

"Our task as governments is to create a platform for industries to innovate faster together and at scale," he said.

This goal was at the heart of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) that the Biden administration launched in January 2023.

"As part of our ICET initiative, we committed to expand commercial space collaboration," Finer said.

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