Vienna: Qatar has reaffirmed its support to efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to facilitate member countries’ accession to international legal instruments related to nuclear security, noting that it has participated in some of these activities and now is considering accession to the 2005 Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material.
Speaking at a meeting of the board of governors of IAEA, Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, Qatar’s ambassador and permanent delegate to the United Nations and international organisations in Vienna, expressed Qatar’s appreciation of the IAEA’s efforts in the field of nuclear security detailed in the report of the IAEA director general and acknowledged the central role of the IAEA in promoting nuclear security.
He added that responsibility for nuclear safety lay with every state and the global dimension of the issue was gaining increasing attention from the international community and its organisations, asserting that nuclear security had become the common responsibility of the international community as a whole and required to be addressed at the national and international levels.
Al Mansouri called for intensifying efforts to expand the participation of developing countries in IAEA’s projects and research related to nuclear security as they help developing countries obtain sustainable nuclear security systems. He called for strengthening the initiatives and regional and sub-regional activities of organisations in the field of nuclear security.
Al Mansouri stressed that nuclear security was an important element in the system of international peace and security, therefore the quest for full implementation of agreements in the field of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament would contribute to the strengthening of nuclear security, noting that effective national nuclear security systems would contribute to the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and promote international efforts to combat nuclear terrorism.
QNA
