Arms export control involves the foreign office, the trade and defence ministries and the department for international development because it cuts across diplomacy, trade, defence and humanitarian issues.

To date, nearly 800 export control officials have been trained in some 30 countries around the world.

Up to the adoption of the resolution export control measures related to means of delivery had not been discussed widely in the international community.

In 2002, the group took two important steps to strengthen export control.

The initial members of the group had different assessments of which chemical precursors should be subject to export control.