Report of the Romanian Delegation to the Socialist Countries Meeting before the General Conference of the IAEA

Report of the Romanian delegation to the socialist countries meeting before the General Conference of the IAEA

1. At the invitation of the Polish State Authority for Atomic Energy, the socialist countries’ meeting was organized on August 19-22 in Torun, before the IAEA General Conference; it was attended by delegates from Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the German Democratic Republic, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Also, a delegate from Yugoslavia attended as observer and only participated in matters concerning “elections for the IAEA Board of Governors” and “choosing the president of the next General Conference”, as well as a representative of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance Secretariat.

2. During the heads of delegations’ meeting, which followed the opening session, it was agreed that the president of the State Authority for Atomic Energy of Poland should lead the meeting, and the agenda should be the same as the one that was approved for the IAEA General Conference. Also, it was agreed that the meeting will be consultative, its purpose being to exchange intelligence and opinions regarding the issues stated in the IAEA Conference agenda, without adopting any decisions or common positions.

3. Regarding the debated issues, we would like to state that:

a. According to the rota principle, it is Eastern Europe’s turn to chair the General Conference.

The Polish delegation informed that the Polish government decided to run for the chair, and for this reason they are asking for the neighboring states’ support. The other delegations of the neighboring countries did not show any interest in running for the chairmanship of the IAEA General Conference, offering their support for Poland’s candidacy according to the principle stating that they should support those countries that have the consent of all neighboring states.- - - Also, it was agreed that the USSR and Czechoslovakia should run on Eastern Europe’s behalf for the Vice President and deputy member positions within the General Conference.

This year, the new rules regarding the development of the General Conference will be enforced, [rules] stating that there will be only one plenary commission which should have an office with one or two more vice presidents and a speaker. In order to have a fair geographical distribution, the Polish delegation wants the Vice President of the respective commission to be from a socialist country, putting forward Romania’s name for this position. The other delegations were in favor of this suggestion. The Romanian delegation acknowledged the suggestion which they will forward to the relevant bodies in Romania, who will then take a decision regarding this matter.

b. Elections for the IAEA Board of Governors.

In order to fill the two IAEA Board of Governors positions that will become available after the mandates of Bulgaria and Hungary end, Yugoslavia and Poland have asked for support. Since according to the rota principle, it is their turn to run on behalf of the region [Eastern Europe], there were no objections during the meeting.

On this occasion, the DPRK delegation declared that it has been instructed to consult the other IAEA socialist member states regarding Korea’s intention to run for the Board of Governors for the “Far East and Pacific” region. The Korean counterpart has already consulted the USSR Mission to the IAEA in Vienna. During the meeting, the other delegations said that they will support the DPRK’s candidacy; if it [the DPRK] decides to run, they should consult with the other neighboring states [from the Far East and Pacific region]. Therefore, the DPRK delegation stated that it will inform the responsible bodies regarding the suggestions received during the meeting and, at the same time, will ask for further instructions. After two days, the DPRK delegation announced that the responsible bodies [in Korea] gave up on announcing their candidacy at the upcoming General Conference.

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic asked to discuss the issue regarding the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and its election to the Board of Governors at the 1976 General Conference or, 1977 the latest. The Romanian delegation stated that this matter is not on the agenda and can be debated at the right time. Czechoslovakia reinforced the Romanian delegation’s statement, the Ukrainian issue following to be brought up in the upcoming years.

Regarding the candidacies for other regions, the USSR declared that if Chile runs for any position, it [the USSR] will vote against it.

c. Financial matters.

The Romanian delegation emphasized that, at the moment, it cannot yet discuss our country’s potential contribution to cover this year’s $2.5 million deficit and that we will discuss this issue based on how efficient the IAEA activities will be at that point. Regarding the budget for 1976, the [Romanian] delegation stated that we will not be able to support the proposed budget, because only a small amount of the 30% growth is planned for the development of current activities, and the budgetary proposals do not guarantee a balance between the funds for safeguards and those for promoting and developing peaceful applications of nuclear energy.

Regarding covering the Organization’s budgetary deficit for 1975, the other delegations said that they will not express disapproval, considering that the factors that have generated this situation are not related to the Agency.

Even though it is against the constant growth of the IAEA budget, the Soviet delegation claimed that, regarding the amount planned for 1976, it will support the safeguards, nuclear energy, environmental protection, and computing-related provisions and will ask for a strict savings plan.

Czechoslovakia shared this view. The Bulgarian and the Hungarian delegations considered that the growth planned for next year is very high.

d. Accepting new states to the IAEA.

Up until now, only the United Republic of Tanzania asked to be admitted to the IAEA, and will be supported by all the socialist states present at the meeting.

e. The IAEA’s relations with intergovernmental organizations.

All delegations present at the meeting claimed that they are in favor of the cooperation agreements between the IAEA, Comecon and Euratom regarding the peaceful use of atomic energy.

The Comecon delegate informed that N. Fadeev, Secretary of the Comecon, will participate at the IAEA General Conference, and considering that Euratom wants to hold a speech, so does he.

f. The IAEA activity report for last year.

Considering that, in general, the IAEA’s activity last year was good, the Romanian delegation identified a few persistent shortcomings, such as: the difficult financial situation, there has been an increased spending on the inspections stipulated in the NPT which led to reduced or no activity in other basic sectors/ fields such as technical assistance for developing countries, research grants, benefits for interested member states especially in the field of nuclear energy.

According to other delegations, the IAEA obtained important achievements last year, emphasizing the Agency’s activities regarding the safeguards stipulated in the NPT, environment protection, and nuclear computing.

At the next IAEA General Conference, the USSR will ask the other member states, who are also  members of the NPT, to take efficient measures to reinforce the Treaty and the safeguards required by it, and suggest that Agency should carry out the inspections in order to contribute to preventing nuclear proliferation.

On the other hand, it [the USSR] will insist that all non-nuclear countries, signatories of the Treaty,  join the measures promoted by the exporting states-  developed, nuclear and nuclear free countries - in order to accept broader inspection conditions for export and import of nuclear equipment and material, regardless of which nuclear free country the transactions will be made with.

The Soviet delegation declared that the USSR will take the same stance as the other developed countries that are members of the Treaty, meaning that they are in favor of asking the non-nuclear states to accept the inspections also over any transfer of any nuclear technology. Also, it will make sure that the “case of the peaceful nuclear explosion in India” will not happen again.

As the Soviet representative declared, the USSR is very preoccupied with concluding the agreements regarding the use of nuclear energy between Brazil and the Federal Republic of Germany, France and Pakistan, as well as France and South Korea, because they do not entail clear and efficient restrictions in terms of safeguards which can lead to nuclear proliferation. The Soviet representative added that, for this reason, the USSR and other countries will seek to determine the countries that would like a similar track to ratify and apply the safeguards provisions stipulated in the Treaty. The Soviet delegation thinks that an efficient solution in this respect would be building complex regional centers, under the aegis of the IAEA, meant to apply the safeguards envisaged in the Treaty; however, it [the USSR] did not refer to the sources that would finance these very expensive centers.

g. Other matters.

- Bringing economic arguments, France, who is supported by some Western countries, intends to bring up the exclusion from the General Conference agenda of the “general debates”, where delegations usually present their political views.

All present delegations believed that the “general debates” are useful and must be kept on the General Conference agenda.

- The other delegations of the European socialist countries mentioned that they will use the upcoming General Conference to express their attitude towards the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe and want the IAEA to take measures in this respect, especially that the final act makes reference to cooperation in terms of energy sources.