Vienna: Pakistan highlights its nuclear security credentials at IAEA conference

Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry highlighted the country's nuclear security credentials at the International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Security in Vienna.

The conference was organised by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on December 5-6.

Pakistan delegation was led by the Foreign Secretary, which also included representatives of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Strategic Plans Division and Pakistan's Ambassador to Austria.

Chaudhry addressing the conference emphasized Pakistan's efforts to actively contribute to the strengthening of global nuclear security objectives.

"Pakistan believes nuclear security is fundamentally a national responsibility and that states need to adopt strong measures at the national level. Pakistan also believes that IAEA has a central role in strengthening the international nuclear security architecture," he said.

Recalling the measures taken by Pakistan in this regard, the Foreign Secretary said that Pakistan has ratified the amended Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM) and had participated actively in the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) process.

He said that Pakistan had established a robust command and control system led by the National Command Authority (NCA) and established strong export controls that were consistent with all major international export control regimes.

"Pakistan also reports regularly to the 1540 Committee of the UN Security Council," Chaudhry said.

The Foreign Secretary particularly highlighted that Pakistan had experience of more than five decades of safe, secure and safeguarded civilian nuclear program and it enjoys enjoy excellent cooperation with IAEA.

During his remarks at the start of the Conference, DG IAEA Yukiya Amano cited Pakistan's Center of Excellence on Nuclear Security as a "very impressive" example of the work being done by states on nuclear security.

The Foreign Secretary also met a number of delegations of key countries on the margins of the Conference.