Speaker
S.F. Chin
(Singapore)
Description
Good afternoon, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the 2014 Symposium on International Safeguards. I hope that you have had a good lunch break. I have the honour today to chair the Technical Plenary this afternoon. I hope that we will have a useful exchange of views on several issues of importance to us. Assisting me this afternoon will be Mr Andy Catton, the Technical Secretary.
Just one gentle reminder before we start. This technical plenary is closed to the media. Hence, if there are any journalists in the room, could I kindly invite you to perhaps take some time off to look at the exhibition booths we have outside or just to enjoy the sights and sounds of Vienna.
I see that there are no journalists here, so before we begin I would like to give you an idea of how I intend to organise this afternoon session. As you may have seen from the programme, the first part from now till about 4.00 pm, we will have several presentations by the IAEA Department of Safeguards. After that, I hope that there will be time for questions and answers. I then intend to have a 30-minute coffee break, following which we will engage in a more interactive panel discussion on the topic of “Ensuring Non-Discrimination and Consistency in Safeguards Implementation”. This afternoon’s Technical Plenary is scheduled to end at around 5.30 or 6 pm.
Now, unless there is any objection to how I intend to structure the Technical Plenary, let’s commence with the first part of this afternoon session. As we have a very full programme this afternoon, I hope that all the speakers will stick closely to their allocated time-slot. We begin with a keynote address of around 20 minutes by IAEA Deputy Director General for Safeguards, Mr Tero Varjoranta, followed by a 15-minute presentation by Director of Concepts and Planning, Ms Jill Cooley. Each of the eight Directors at the Safeguards Department will then make some short remarks of around 5 minutes each on their respective area of work.
Without much ado, I now have the honour and the pleasure of inviting DDG Tero Varjoranta to deliver his keynote address. Tero, please . . . .
Thank you, DDG Varjoranta for your keynote address where you highlighted the importance of a good strategy, which is amongst others realistic and flexible enough to adjust to changes in the external environment, sometimes unforeseen and sometimes sudden. A strategy, however, requires effective implementation and in the case of the IAEA it can only be implemented with the assistance of its Member States.
I welcome DDG’s point about the importance of communication, both internal communication within the Secretariat, as well as external communication vis-à-vis the Member States so that the latter are aware of what the Safeguards Department is doing and why.
Last but not least, DDG highlighted that, especially in safeguards, the Secretariat relies on the trust and confidence of its Member States, trust that what the Secretariat is doing is fair and fully consistent with legal agreements in force, and confident that the Secretariat is working objectively in pursuit of independent and soundly-based conclusions.
DDG, we are confident that under your able leadership and earnest efforts, you will open a new chapter of enriched, positive and meaningful cooperation between the Secretariat and Member States on safeguards matters, as well as keeping the credibility of the Agency intact as it has always been.
Next on my list is Director of Concepts and Planning, Ms Jill Cooley, who will elaborate on the IAEA Department of Safeguards strategic planning and its long-term R&D plan which the DDG mentioned in his address a couple of minutes ago. Jill, please . . . .
Thank you, Jill.
May I now invite the respective Directors at the Safeguards Department to share with us a summary of their work to-date, the successes as well as the more difficult task at hand. I understand that they will also outline the future challenges they will face.
First on my list is :
(i) Director of the Division of Operations A, responsible for inspections in Australasia and East Asia, Mr Gary Dyck.
(ii) Next, may I invite Director of the Division of Operations B, responsible for the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, non-EU states and the Americas, Mr Van Zyl de Villiers.
(iii) Director of the Division of Operations C, responsible for Europe, the Russian Federation and Central Asia, Mr Haroldo Barroso, is next.
(iv) Director of the Division of Information Management, Mr Jacques Baute.
(v) Director of the Division of Technical and Scientific Services, Mr Sergey Zykov.
(vi) Director of the Office of Information and Communication Systems, Mr Frank Moser.
(vii) Director of the Office of Safeguards Analytical Services, Ms Gabi Voigt.
(viii) Last on my list will be Director of the Division of Concepts and Planning, Ms Jill Cooley.
Thank you all eight Directors for highlighting the work under your Divisions including the challenges you are facing. Over the course of this week many of you will have the opportunity to have a more in-depth discussion on some of the issues which have been highlighted during this afternoon’s session. In the meantime, perhaps we take advantage of the fact that DDG and all the Directors of the Safeguards Department are present with us here to take some questions from the floor . . . .
Many thanks for your active participation. After sitting here for two hours, I believe that we all deserve a good coffee break. Could I seek your indulgence to return back to this room at 4.30 pm. I would like to begin the second part of this afternoon session promptly at that time.
Welcome back to the second part of this afternoon session where we intend to have a more interactive panel discussion on an issue of importance to many IAEA Member States, namely, “Ensuring non-discrimination and consistency in safeguards implementation”.
Now I have the pleasure of having all eight Directors here with me in this very cozy set-up. To help us focus on this discussion and to start the ball rolling, I would like to start with a few comments and a couple of questions before I open it to the meeting for comments and questions.
The IAEA has been entrusted by the international community to conduct verification activities and implement safeguards. The work of the IAEA in this important area contributes to the establishment of a robust global nuclear non-proliferation regime, which is one of the essential elements as we seek to promote peace and security around the world. Being the only international organisation with this special mandate, the integrity and the credibility of the Agency are therefore vital as the international community needs to know that they can trust that the safeguards conclusion for a particular country has been drawn by the Agency only after, amongst others, a meticulous inspection in the field and a thorough and objective evaluation of all safeguards-relevant information, free of all political influence. All these points have also been highlighted by DDG Varjoranta in his keynote address at the beginning of the technical plenary. So, the question is, which is the topic of this panel discussion, how does the IAEA ensure consistency in the area of safeguards? What lessons can be drawn from the past in order to further enhance consistency in safeguards implementation? In light of the changing nuclear landscape, and in particular the increasing complexity of nuclear facilities, what steps may be envisaged to ensure the objectivity and consistency of safeguards implementation?
I am sure many of you will have some comments on this topic. I would like to first invite you to raise any questions or make any comments you would like. Please, if you can limit your intervention to no more than 5 minutes, then I will invite the Directors to answer. Make full use of this opportunity, because we rarely have all eight Directors from the IAEA Safeguards Department with us. The floor is all yours . . . .
