Vietnam attends regular meeting of IAEA Board of Governors

IAEA Board of Governors meeting in June. (Photo: VNA)

According to VNA correspondents in Central and Eastern Europe, on June 5, the regular meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opened with the participation of representatives of 35 board member countries, along with a number of IAEA member countries and international organizations as observers.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by Ambassador Nguyen Trung Kien, Governor-Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the IAEA, with the participation of representatives of specialized units under the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his opening remarks, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi emphasized that the IAEA always strives to promptly support member countries within the agency's authority, notably the United Nations Security Council's support for the five principles proposed by the IAEA to ensure the security and safety of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, including no attacks on the plant; no use of the plant to store heavy weapons or station armed forces; no threats to the safety of the plant's power source; protection of infrastructure for safe plant operation; no actions that undermine the above principles.

On this occasion, Mr. Grossi also reviewed the IAEA's outstanding activities in 2022 to promote peaceful applications of nuclear technology, enhance nuclear safety and security, and carry out inspection activities.

In particular, the IAEA Director General highlighted the efforts to support 149 countries and territories and achieve a cooperation program completion rate of up to 84.4%, with a budget for cooperation in 2022 of about 130 million euros.

Initiatives such as Rays of Hope, ZODIAC (Zootogenic Integrated Action), or NUTEC Plastics (Nuclear Technology for Plastic Pollution Control) have all made notable progress.

The June 2023 Board of Governors meeting will take place over a week and focus on reviewing and discussing the IAEA's Annual Reports, including the Annual Report, Technical Cooperation Report, Nuclear Safeguards Report, etc., to unanimously approve and submit them to the 67th Session of the IAEA General Conference in September 2023.

In addition, some other contents were also discussed by the Council member countries, such as the implementation of the Safeguards Agreements between the IAEA and Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria, some emerging issues such as the security and safety situation of the nuclear power plant in Ukraine, or the Treaty on Trilateral Cooperation between the US, UK and Australia on the Transfer of Nuclear-Powered Submarines (AUKUS)....

Attending this meeting, Ambassador Nguyen Trung Kien affirmed Vietnam's consistent policy of supporting the non-proliferation and the complete and total disarmament of nuclear weapons, emphasizing the need for balance between the three pillars of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), thereby promoting the rights of countries to use energy and apply nuclear technology for peaceful purposes on the basis of international law and obligations to the NPT.

IAEA Board of Governors meeting in June. (Photo: VNA)

The Ambassador praised Vietnam's efforts and achievements in the field of nuclear safety and affirmed that Vietnam always supports the role of the IAEA; highly appreciated technical cooperation programs, especially those being implemented between Vietnam and the IAEA such as the ZODIAC program, the Vietnam-Laos/Cambodia-IAEA tripartite cooperation project; and requested the IAEA to continue to increase support and technical cooperation with Vietnam in this field.

Vietnam was elected as a member of the IAEA Board of Governors from September 2021 for a two-year term from 2021-2023.

The agency currently has 35 members: the UK, Argentina, India, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Guatemala, South Korea, Ireland, Kenya, Libya, the US, Namibia, South Africa, Japan, Russia, Pakistan, Finland, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, China, Australia, Uruguay and Vietnam.

Each year, the IAEA Board of Governors holds four meetings in March, June, September and November. The IAEA General Conference Annual Session will take place in September./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

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