Daily Archives: June 9, 2022

AGENDA ITEM 9: SAFETY, SECURITY AND SAFEGUARDS IN UKRAINE 

Mr Chairperson 

First of all, allow me to thank the Director General and the Secretariat for the continued updates on the situation around Ukraine’s nuclear facilities as well as that provided to the Board in his Introductory Statement. South Africa appreciates the leadership shown by the Director General and the IAEA as the first international organisation to deploy in the conflict zone leading from the front. 

Mr Chair 

South Africa bemoans the conflict in Ukraine and we reiterate our firm rejection of the illegal use of force under all circumstances and our unwavering commitment to the principles and purposes of the UN Charter.  

We call on both sides to resolve this conflict through earnest engagement and dialogue in good faith with the aim to find a diplomatic solution.South Africa is deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis that continues to worsen, especially the severe impact on the most vulnerable of society. Furthermore, the wanton destruction of infrastructure as well as the environment, has far reaching consequences that will be felt for ages by the poorest of the poor far beyond the borders of the conflict. 

Mr Chairperson, 

We also reiterate that the responsibility for the safety and security of a State’s nuclear facilities lies entirely with that State and should not be interfered with under any circumstances. South Africa therefore urges the Russian Federation to return the command and full control of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities to the Ukrainian regulator. 

South Africa strongly supports the efforts of the Agency in the execution of its mandate by supporting Ukraine to strengthen the safety and security of its vast nuclear programme.  In addition, we are impressed that the Agency has been able to restart its verification activities. Conducting this work during the current conflict is unprecedented and we want to assure the Director General and the personnel of the IAEA deployed in Ukraine of our gratitude and unwavering support. 

My delegation is therefore troubled that the IAEA access to the ZNPP in the conflict zone has been curtailed and therefore unable to verify the nuclear material, and to evaluate the safety and security at the plants. As we stated perviously the chances of a nuclear disaster in Ukraine is unfortunately very real and we call on the parties to the conflict to facilitate the safe access for the Agency to all the nuclear facilities they have requested to visit. 

South Africa would like to caution against the politicisation of the IAEA’s work, and call on all the parties not to request the Agency to conduct activities or take actions beyond its mandate. 

Mr Chairperson, 

In conclusion, South Africa, further notes with concern that other long-standing conflicts have not received the massive attention enjoyed by this conflict. Whilst we do not deny the deplorable situation in Ukraine, it is important that global outrage is equally distributed to all conflicts  Palestine and Sahrawi for example.  

I thank you. 

AGENDA ITEM 10: TRANSFER OF THE NUCLEAR MATERIALS IN THE CONTEXT OF AUKUS AND ITS SAFEGUARDS IN ALL ASPECTS UNDER THE NPT 

Mr Chair 

We thank the Director General for the update he provided in his introductory statement, and noticed the lack of any new information and clarity despite the fact that there have been numerous rounds of consultation between the Agency and the AUKUS States and we are now more than half-way through the 18 month consultation period announced in September last year. 

This is the first time that we are expressing our initial views on a matter among three, all important strategic partners of South Africa on how the nuclear naval propulsion deal will work, specifically on how these partners envisage to protect the safeguards regime. 

Firstly, in South Africa’s opinion, informed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its implementation of more than 50 years, the transfer of nuclear military technology from two nuclear weapon states to a non-nuclear weapon state is an activity, we argue, is against the letter and the spirit of the NPT.  This is based on over 50 years of legal practice, which we believe further determined that the exclusion of nuclear material and facilities from IAEA verification is only applicable to the nuclear weapon states, and is not extended to non-nuclear weapon states like Australia. 

Therefore, if an exception is made now, or the implementation of the NPT is contorted to “allow” for a non-nuclear weapon state to exclude nuclear material/ equipment/facilities from IAEA inspections, there is nothing that will prevent any other NPT state party to do the same, which we fear could fatally impact the non- proliferation regime. 

Secondly, the unwritten mantra of this organisation is “trust is good verification is better”.  The AUKUS states are asking us to trust them because of their extremely “exemplary safeguards records”. We do not question the good standing of the AUKUS partners, it is simply not good enough to be asked to rely on trust alone. 

The IAEA has a legal verification obligation, which it executes on behalf of all of the international community. Therefore, as is the case with all safeguards agreements, any adjustment to Australia’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol and the Voluntary Offer Agreements of the UK and the US must be subjected to scrutiny by the Board. We accept that information is still scarce but our impatience should also be understood. 

With this in mind we ask that the Director General to continue to report on developments to the Board, regularly preferably in writing and if possible more substantially. 

I thank you. 

Mr Chairperson 

The reform of the international system and global governance institutions is a major priority for the South African Government. As we said on countless occasions, we will not cease our advocacy until the antiquated institution of the previous century, created before our Continent was liberated have been brought into the 21st Century. This is also true of the IAEA 

It is unforgivable and illogical that such an important organ in global governance has so-called “homeless states” just because of an irrational division of groups. The power to change this situation is in all our own hands and we call on all Member States, including on our Continent, that have not yet ratified Art 6 to do so urgently. 

We reiterate that all States, based on the principle of sovereign equality, have the inherent right to stand for election for important leadership positions in all international organisations, the IAEA should not be an exception to that rule. We therefore stand ready to support the proposal made by Kazakhstan so that we can move forward and accelerate the process 

I thank you.