The hypocrisy of U.S. and the Western world is sickening. When U.S. was against the treaty, they forced UN General Assembly to pass the treaty ONLY if there was a absolute consensus among all countries, effectively giving themselves a veto power. Now, when U.S. is pro-treaty, 8 year old rules were changed overnight to put the treaty to a simple vote in UNGA.
Today, the Australian Ambassador (the sponsor of the treaty) and his Western colleagues are thumping their chests, with a PR blitz of terms like 'victory of millions', 'making world a safer place' and 'reducing human suffering' blah blah, but everyone knows that the majority of the world was FOR the treaty even 8 years back, so these last 8 years were wasted only by U.S. and the West. And the reason is simple - for watering down the agreement to a point where it can be used as an ethical whipping stick according to their own Foreign Policy.
The NYTimes
says this about the vote today:
The United States and many European countries say they already have arms sales guidelines in effect that tie sales to the human-rights records of the buyers and other issues included in the treaty.
Now, for uttering these ethical sermons, they surely must be smoking something good. Are the current multi-billion US and Western military sales to Saudi, Pak and entire Middle East including Syrial rebels 'humanitarian' compliant according to the statement above?
Anyway, this treaty will come into effect when 50 states ratify it - which will be as soon as end of this year according to NYTimes and others. India should be very clear about the fact that even if imports to us are allowed, it CAN and WILL BE easily turned off in case of a war that West doesn't agree with. And with this treaty, even Russian/Israel or other friendly powers won't be able to help.
Effectively, as the biggest arms importer, India has been slapped with military sanctions today - just that the date of enforcement hasn't been decided. Its time to develop our indigenous capabilities.