Disarmament Diplomacy

IAEA General Conference

Editor's note: on September 30, the General Conference elected 11 new members to its 35-member Board of Governors. The new Board, which began work on October 4, consists of: Algeria (new member), Argentina, Australia, Austria (new member), Belarus (new member), Bolivia (new member), Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba (new member), Egypt, Finland (new member), France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia (new member), Japan, Jordan, Nigeria (new member), Norway, Poland (new member), Republic of Korea (new member), Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sudan, Sweden, Syria (new member), United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay.

Summary of Conference

"States Strengthen Nuclear Cooperation for New Millenium", IAEA Press Release 99/13, October 1, 1999.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency's progressive course into the next century moved forward in important ways this week, as States resolved to strengthen cooperation in key areas of global safety, security, and peaceful nuclear development. The Agency's Member States adopted a series of resolutions at the IAEA General Conference, which concludes today in Vienna. High-level governmental delegates from 111 countries are attending the Conference. ...

The concluding session today was prefaced by an IAEA press release on the accident, which occurred on 30 September at the Tokaimura facility in Japan…

Among important steps taken during the week:

• Six more States - Czech Republic, Ecuador, Indonesia, Monaco, Norway, and Slovakia - signed agreements (Additional Protocols) that strengthen the Agency's system for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. …
• States stressed the urgency of re-establishing the IAEA's nuclear monitoring and verification activities in Iraq, where the Agency's last inspections took place some nine months ago. States also called upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to comply fully with its IAEA safeguards agreement and to take all steps that the Agency deems necessary to preserve relevant information for its verification.
• Under an Initiative launched in September 1997, the United States, Russia, and the IAEA agreed on further work towards the Agency's verification of weapon-origin fissile material in the two States. ...
• States agreed that the Agency should move ahead against illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials. States invited the IAEA to develop a plan and timetable for enhancing global cooperation and coordination in preventing, detecting, and responding to the illegal use of nuclear and other radioactive materials. ...

© 1999 The Acronym Institute.

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