The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, today welcomed the adoption with consensus by the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of the final document on the review and operation of the Treaty. The Director General especially welcomed the reaffirmation of the basic tenets of the Treaty and of the non-proliferation regime, notably:
- the recognition that IAEA safeguards are a fundamental pillar of the non-proliferation regime and endorsement of measures to strengthen those safeguards, in particular the measures that will increase confidence about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities;
- the agreement on a series of concrete steps in the direction of nuclear disarmament, including an unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals;
- the commitment to facilitate peaceful nuclear co-operation among all parties and to make available the financial resources required for the transfer of these technologies to developing countries; and
- the call for universal adherence to the Treaty, which is indispensable for achieving the goals of the Treaty.
The Director General said he was pleased by the vote of confidence shown in the IAEA and its role in the implementation of the Treaty. He expressed the hope that all the commitments made will be followed by concrete actions as soon as possible, and affirmed the readiness of the IAEA — within available resources — to continue to fulfil, in an effective and efficient manner, current and future tasks entrusted to it by the parties to the Treaty.