In July 2023 the Dutch government announced its intention to join the multilateral Agreement on the Control of Arms Exports between France, Germany, and Spain. The letter carrying the announcement simultaneously repealed the existing Dutch presumption of denial policy regarding arms exports to Saudi-Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. This article analyses these developments within the broader framework of the Netherlands and EU arms export controls. Its aim is to introduce the readers to challenges facing EU arms export controls, to explain the reasoning behind the Netherlands’ decision to join the agreement, and to describe some of the potential practical implications for the Dutch defence and security sector. The article finds that while the EU has been working towards a common European approach to arms export controls for over three decades, the EU Common Position (1st introduced in 2008) did not achieve the desired convergence on arms export policies.