Belarus to attend IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna

05.03.2016

The IAEA Board of Governors meeting, to be held at the Agency's headquarters in Vienna on 7-11 March, will be attended by a Belarusian delegation headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Valentin Rybakov, Belarus’ representative in the Board, BelTA learned from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The IAEA Board of Governors will consider the drafts of two key reports: Nuclear Safety Review 2016 and Nuclear Technology Review 2016. They will discuss the verification and monitoring in Iran in the light of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015), nuclear inspection in North Korea and Syria. The Belarusian delegation is scheduled to hold meetings with the IAEA Secretariat officials.

“For Belarus, which started its first nuclear program, nuclear safety is a priority in cooperation with the IAEA. Although nuclear safety is an unconditional national responsibility of states, international cooperation in this area has a high added value,” the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The press service noted that the IAEA provides the member states with a number of opportunities for interaction, for example, in technical cooperation, and also by means of sending to the states, upon their request, experts or evaluation missions to study the situation on a topic of interest and preparing practical recommendations. Another major area in the work of the IAEA is the preparation and continuous improvement of various safety standards that can serve as an important benchmark for the member states in the process of developing national standards.

The IAEA Board of Governors, along with the General Conference, is the decision-making body of the Agency. The Board is composed of 35 states. The Board of Governors generally meets five times per year to examine and make recommendations to the General Conference on the IAEA's accounts, program and budget, and considers applications for membership. It also approves safeguards agreements and the publication of the IAEA's safety standards and has the responsibility of appointing the Director General of the IAEA with the approval of the General Conference, examines the non-compliance by a country with its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation safeguards and adopts a decision about further steps right to the transfer of the matter to the UN Security Council.

Belarus was elected to the IAEA Board of Governors for 2015-2017. Previously Belarus was a member of the Board in 1999-2001 and 2005-2007.

Tags: nuclear industry

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