Kazakhstan's Initiative on the Agenda of IAEA General Conference

Vienna, August 29, 2024 - At the initiative of the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan in Vienna, the regular meeting of the Group of Friends of the IAEA Arealess Member States was held.

The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan, Mukhtar Tileuberdi, introduced the new Chair of the Group of Friends - the Permanent Representative of Argentina and current Chair of the IAEA Board of Governors, Holger Federico Martinsen.

The Group of Friends discussed further measures to restore sovereign equality in the IAEA and outlined plans for the upcoming 68th General Conference of the Agency. It should be noted that the issue of sovereign equality of all Member States has been placed on the agenda of the IAEA General Conference.

 For reference, the Central Asian countries, Israel, Cambodia, Laos and a number of small island states are not included in the IAEA regional groups. These countries are deprived of the right to be elected to the organisation's governing bodies, which violates the principle of sovereign equality of the IAEA Statute. On the initiative of Kazakhstan, a resolution was adopted by the IAEA General Conference in September 2023 to address this issue.