Mr. Yukiya Amano, Director General of the IAEA (left) and Amb. Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares, Secretary General of OPANAL (right)
On February 5, 2016, the OPANAL Council held a special session on the occasion of the visit to the OPANAL headquarters of Mr. Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The special session was chaired by Ambassador Enio Cordeiro (Brazil), in his capacity as President of the Council. Likewise, representatives of the following Member States of the Organization attended: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
The President of the Council stated that "the Treaty of Tlatelolco establishes a Control System for the monitoring and verification of the commitments assumed by the States Parties to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and this Control System depends largely on the cooperation between the OPANAL and the IAEA.
For his part, the Secretary General of OPANAL, Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares, stated in his speech that "the Treaty of Tlatelolco achieved a very rare feat in International Law through the creation of a new institute that came to be known as a "nuclear weapons-free zone." Mainly aimed at the security of Latin America and the Caribbean, the text of the Treaty begins with the recognition of the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Furthermore, in the seventeen paragraphs of its Preamble, the Treaty clearly and extensively establishes the primary objectives of non-proliferation and the total prohibition of nuclear weapons.
Mr. Yukiya Amano stated that all OPANAL Member States have concluded comprehensive nuclear safeguards agreements with the IAEA and that they are all implementing these agreements. He also noted that "the Treaty of Tlatelolco is a very good example for other countries." In this regard, the Director General of the IAEA recalled the participation of OPANAL in the Forum on Experiences of Possible Relevance for the Creation of a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Middle East, organized by the IAEA in 2011. Likewise, he noted that « "We have learned that despite the differences and the existing complexity, the States in the [Middle East] region had a very constructive discussion and were able to learn about their experience."
The Director General of the IAEA added that the use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes is a very important issue for more than 100 countries and that the IAEA considers technical cooperation and the use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes a priority. In addition, he noted that the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September 2015, recognize the role of science and technology for development and, in this sense, "nuclear technology could be useful to achieve the sustainable development goals."
On October 10, 1972, OPANAL and the IAEA signed a Cooperation Agreement as provided for in Article 19 of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. IAEA safeguards agreements are essential to maintaining the Latin American and Caribbean region as a nuclear weapons-free zone.