Croatia is the 39th member of the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA). The organisation, established in 1966, started to expand only recently and since December 2004 Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Croatia have been admitted. The Wassenaar Arrangement was established by 33 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Great Britain and the United States.
Considering the fact that provisions of the WA are part of EU regulations, by joining the organisation Croatia has met one of the obligations in the process of adjustment to EU criteria and its membership is expected to positively affect its admission to NATO.
The WA is the first general multilateral agreement on the control of export of conventional arms and dual-purpose goods and technologies. Its purpose is to promote transparency and encourage responsibility in the trade in conventional arms and dual-purpose goods and technologies in order to prevent their destabilising proliferation.
Member-countries meet regularly in Vienna where the WA Secretariat is based. This year the organisation is chaired by Austria.