Photo Credit: Rodolfo Quevenco/IAEA
IAEA Board of Governors Meeting, Agenda Item 6(a): Nuclear Verification – The Conclusion of Safeguards Agreements and of Additional Protocols
U.S. statement as delivered by Acting IAEA Counselor Edward Canuel
Vienna, Austria
Madam Chair,
The United States welcomes the actions by Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe to conclude their Additional Protocols. We are pleased to join consensus to approve these instruments and to authorize the Director General to sign and implement them. The United States also welcomes the recent action by Eritrea to bring into force its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol. We call upon all states that have not fulfilled their obligation under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to conclude a comprehensive safeguards agreement to do so without delay and urge all states that have not yet done so to bring an Additional Protocol into force. The combination of a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and an Additional Protocol represents the de facto standard for achieving the safeguards objectives of the NPT, to provide assurances that all nuclear material is under safeguards. We also urge states that have not yet done so to modify or rescind any outdated Small Quantities Protocols, and to respond to the Director General’s recent letters to that effect.
Thank you, Madam Chair.