UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 54th SESSION
Agenda Item 14: Report of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Statement by H.E. Mr Les Luck, Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament
4 November 1999
Mr President
The Australian delegation is pleased to commend the Director-General, Dr Mohamed Elbaradei, for his report on the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Australia's commitment to the International Atomic Energy Agency is strong. The agency plays a central role in the contribution of nuclear technology to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. The agency plays a vital role in maintaining global nuclear non-proliferation and security through the operation of the nuclear safeguards system, and in areas such as illicit trafficking of nuclear materials and the management of surplus fissile material from dismantled weapons.
It is this role which makes the IAEA one of the central pillars of the nuclear non-proliferation regime - of which the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is the cornerstone.
Australia also appreciates the importance of the agency's work in nuclear safety, radioactive waste management, and transportation of nuclear and other radioactive materials.
Mr President
It is less than six months before the start of the sixth review conference of the NPT. This will be a landmark event in the non-proliferation and disarmament calendar. Although the review process itself is conducted outside the IAEA framework, it nonetheless covers articles iii and iv of the NPT under which the agency is either designated, or taken to be, the implementing agency for international safeguards, and the promotion of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The NPT is the centrepiece of a nuclear arms control regime made up of a series of interlocking international treaties, arrangements, undertakings and norms aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons and advancing nuclear disarmament.
Australia places a high priority on the NPT'S continuing strength. With 187 states parties, the NPT is the most widely adhered to arms control treaty and makes a vital contribution to global security. All parties have a shared interest in working together to produce outcomes that reinforce the NPT at the 2000 Review Conference.
Mr President
There is a continuing need to remain vigilant in looking for clandestine nuclear weapons programs and in maintaining pressure on non-compliant states.
Australia adds its voice to those who have expressed concern that, for nearly a year now, the agency has been unable to carry out its inspection activity in Iraq in accordance with its mandate under Security Council resolution 687. Australia is concerned that Iraq not take advantage of the cessation of IAEA inspections to reactivate its nuclear weapons program. We welcome the IAEA's commitment to resume verification in Iraq as soon as circumstances allow.
With respect to the DPRK, the agency's responsibility is two-fold: firstly, that flowing from the IAEA's safeguards agreement with North Korea, and secondly, the role pursuant to the agreed framework concluded between the DPRK and the United States.
Australia has welcomed the agreed framework, as it has welcomed, and supported politically and financially, progress achieved through the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO). The IAEA has done well to monitor, under difficult circumstances, the freeze required by the agreed framework of nuclear activities in the DPRK. On the other hand, for the agency to discharge the full responsibilities assigned to it under the framework, there will need to be full cooperation from the DPRK authorities.
Australia remains concerned at the DPRK's continuing non-compliance with the IAEA-DPRK safeguards agreement. We register again our expectation that the DPRK will preserve all information needed by the IAEA to verify its initial inventory.
We welcome the recent apparent improvement in relations between the DPRK and other countries. We hope this will be reflected in reduced tensions in the region and improved North Korean cooperation with the IAEA.
Mr President
As Dr Elbaradei has noted in his statement, the IAEA's focus of work this year has been on strengthening the safeguards system. Australia has been a strong and active proponent of the IAEA's strengthened safeguards system, embodied in the model additional protocol, to improve the IAEA's inspection and access rights. Australia played a prominent role in the negotiation of the model protocol, and was the first country to ratify an additional protocol in 1997.
The IAEA safeguards system is a key component of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Australia has supported the IAEA's efforts in encouraging signature and entry into force of additional protocols for strengthened safeguards. We believe that the international community should be moving towards declaring the model protocol as constituting the agency's safeguards system prescribed in the NPT. This will require concerted effort, given that fifty-odd states have yet to comply even with their legal obligations to conclude a classical safeguards agreement under the NPT, to which they are party.
Mr President
The IAEA's work over the past twelve months has also included the other pillar of IAEA activities, nuclear safety.
In this context, we would like to note the efforts of the agency in Y2K activities, which have focused on nuclear installation safety. The agency has played a pivotal role in facilitating information exchanges on compliance in the run-up to the millennium. Australia was glad to join the group of countries contributing extra-budgetary resources to help fund IAEA activity in this area.
We were also active participants in the first review meeting of the convention on nuclear safety held in April this year. The review process has already had a discernible impact on the safety programs of a number of contracting parties. We urge all those who are operating, constructing or planning nuclear power reactors, which have not yet adhered to the convention, to now do so.
Further on the issue of nuclear safety, we see the need to mention the joint convention on the safety of spent fuel management and on the safety of radioactive waste management. This is an important part of the international framework for the safe conduct of nuclear activities. There are thirteen contracting states and thirty-nine signatories to the joint convention, of which Australia is one. We urge all to sign and ratify.
These arrangements form an important part of the IAEA's framework for the safe conduct and improvement of peaceful nuclear activity. Australia supports all parties' participation in these arrangements.
Mr President
The IAEA's technical cooperation programme is also an important part of the agency's role in encouraging the use of nuclear technology for peace, health and development throughout the world. Australia, in recognition of the importance of the programme, will be increasing its voluntary contribution this year. Australia will also continue its traditional in-kind technical support to the agency and to various neighbouring countries in various aspects of peaceful nuclear technology. The Asian regional RCA Programme is one in which Australia invests particular effort. Among the more interesting projects under way under the RCA is the application of nuclear techniques in dealing with problems of coastal and marine pollution.
Mr President
The new millennium will be no less challenging than the one we are now exiting. The non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament agenda has faced some tests in the recent past, and will continue to require solid effort.
Nuclear testing in South Asia last year underlines the continuing need to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force. We urge those who have yet to sign and ratify the CTBT to do so forthwith. Significant progress has been made in establishing the international monitoring system, which is a key component of the treaty's verification machinery. While many states have signed the treaty, Australia will continue to work with others to secure further signature and ratifications by the 44 required to bring it into force.
Another key priority, acknowledged as such repeatedly by the international community, is the negotiation of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT). The 1995 NPT review and extension conference identified the negotiation of an FMCT as one of the most urgent disarmament and non-proliferation steps the international community should take. Australia remains strongly committed to an FMCT and is working to have the conference on disarmament commence.