The 65th IAEA General Conference, taking place in Vienna, Austria, concluded on Friday. — Photo from IAEA

VIENNA — A Vietnamese delegation led by Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyễn Trung Kiên, resident representative of Việt Nam to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), attended the 65th Annual Regular Session of the agency’s General Conference, which took place in Vienna, Austria, from September 20-24.

At the session, IAEA member countries elected Việt Nam to the IAEA Board of Governors for the 2021-2023 term.

With this role, Việt Nam will join 34 other member countries of the IAEA Board of Governors in considering and recommending the IAEA General Conference on the agency’s operational programmes and financial issues, considering the admission of new member countries, approving inspection agreements between the IAEA and its member states as well as IAEA’s regulations and standards on nuclear safety and security.

In his speech at the event, Ambassador Kiên, who was elected as Vice President of the 65th General Conference, thanked the IAEA for supporting Việt Nam in applying nuclear technology in different fields, especially in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Equipment and biological products provided by the IAEA have helped Việt Nam carry out testing and diagnosis of infected cases, thus creating conditions for treatment and containing the spread of the pandemic, he said.

Regarding technical cooperation, the ambassador reported that in the 2020-2021 period, Việt Nam has implemented six national cooperation projects, and participated in 10 regional cooperation projects.

Việt Nam will coordinate with the IAEA to prepare a cooperation framework programme for the 2022-27 period, which will focus on priority cooperation areas between the two sides, Kiên said.

He added that Việt Nam will coordinate with Laos and Cambodia to implement a tripartite cooperation agreement on applying nuclear technology – one of the focuses of the IAEA's technical cooperation programme in Southeast Asia.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that in 2021, the IAEA has supported 146 countries and territories to apply nuclear technology in various fields, especially in response to COVID-19, public health and medical treatment, improving the quality of agricultural products and promoting sustainable agriculture, and ensuring nuclear safety and security.

He pledged to further promote the implementation of technical cooperation programmes as well as cooperation projects on applying nuclear technology to solve issues related to human infectious diseases from animals (ZODIAC) and plastic waste (NUTEC Plastic).

On the sidelines of the session, the Vietnamese delegation held a working session with Deputy Director General of the IAEA and head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications Dr. Najat Mokhtar.

Ambassador Kiên also had working sessions with heads of delegations of Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, India, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and ASEAN countries on cooperation programmes in the future. — VNS