Kazakhstan actively promotes the restoration of sovereign equality at the IAEA

Vienna, 15 February 2024 – The second meeting of the Group of Arealess Member States, chaired by Slovenia, was convened in advance of the upcoming meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors.

The main task of the Group of Friends is to distribute the IAEA member States that are not members of regional groups and, accordingly, are deprived of the right to be elected to the Agency's decision-making bodies. The relevant mandate of the Group was approved by the resolution of the IAEA General Conference, put forward on the initiative of Kazakhstan in September 2023, and adopted by an overwhelming majority of votes.

The event was attended by the heads of diplomatic missions of the United States, Russia, China, Canada, Great Britain, the European Union, Australia, Turkiye, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, South Africa, and other member states. The participants discussed possible criteria and principles for the fair and early allocation of 17 homeless countries to the relevant regional groups, which include Kazakhstan, Israel, Nepal, Bahrain, Central Asian countries, and the Asia-Pacific region.

In his speech, the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan, Mukhtar Tileuberdi, put forward a proposal to appoint facilitators from among the impartial countries in each of the 8 regional groups who would promote the membership of “homeless” countries in regional groups. This proposal found wide support among the participants of the meeting of the Group of Friends.

The heads of diplomatic missions thanked Kazakhstan and Slovenia for actively promoting the issue of restoration of sovereign equality in the IAEA. Kazakhstan's active stance in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy was particularly noted, including the upcoming co-chairmanship with Australia in the International Conference on Nuclear Security (ICONS-2024) on 20-24 May this year.