General Conference approves Appointment of Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei as IAEA Director General

The Director General-designate of the IAEA, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt, today outlined challenging tasks shaping the Agency's future and called for a broad consensus on the three pillars of sustainable development, nuclear safety and nuclear verification. The appointment of Dr. ElBaradei as the IAEA's next Director General was approved today by the Agency's General Conference, which is meeting in Vienna this week. He will succeed Dr. Hans Blix of Sweden, who is retiring after sixteen years in office, and on whom the General Conference today conferred the title of Director General Emeritus. The change of leadership takes effect 1 December 1997.

"For international organizations to enjoy the confidence and support of their members, they have to be responsive to their needs, show concrete achievements, conduct their activities in a cost-effective manner and respect a process of equitable representation, transparency, and open dialogue," Dr. ElBaradei said in his statement to the General Conference. "The IAEA is an organization for the promotion of peace and sustainable development through international cooperation to utilize nuclear energy safely, while curbing nuclear weapons' proliferation and hopefully one day verifying their elimination. The Agency can be justly proud of its record, to which Dr. Blix, to whom I pay special tribute, has contributed in such an outstanding manner during his tenure. He steered the Agency through turbulent times with deftness and vision."

Dr. ElBaradei outlined three sets of challenging and complex tasks ahead for the Agency and its Member States. The first concerns assistance to countries interested in using peaceful applications of nuclear technology in safe and productive ways to satisfy requirements for energy, food, health, and water, among other basic needs, in line with their priorities for economic and social development. The second concerns building on progress over the past decade by consolidating the global regime for nuclear and radiation safety as a comprehensive and coherent set of well-accepted standards. The transformation of many of the safety norms into conventions and "hard law" is a welcome development, he said, that should continue with emphasis on adherence. The third set of tasks concerns the verification of States' undertakings not to develop nuclear weapons, which he called "vital to international security". Under the strengthened safeguards system that States have adopted, he said that "the Agency must be able to provide additional assurances about an inspected State's nuclear activities, as this will undoubtedly become of critical importance as we move towards nuclear disarmament". He said it is now "pivotal" that the Protocol incorporating the new safeguards measures gain universal support among States.

Some "fundamental requirements" are needed for meeting the challenges effectively, he said. They include a broad consensus on, and sustained commitment to, the three pillars defined above; a focused programme and clearly defined priorities; and adequate resources, both human and financial. "The IAEA cannot have a monopoly on all things nuclear," he said. "We need to review the programme to ensure that it is organized around our core competencies and what the Agency is best suited to do." He said that the criteria governments should use in judging whether to commit additional resources to the Agency is "whether they, its shareholders, stand to get a good return on their investment, both in the short and long term." If they regard the IAEA as a successful instrument for promoting international peace, enhancing nuclear safety, and positively contributing to the process of economic and social development, he said, then investment in the Agency was surely a wise decision.