Mr. President,

I join others in thanking Director General, Dr. ElBaradei for introducing the report on the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency on its activities during the past year. On behalf of the Government of Mongolia I wish to take this opportunity to express our profound respect to Dr. ElBaradei for his professionalism and skillful stewardship of the Agency and for outstanding contributions to promoting the goals of the Agency during his twelve year tenure. The activities carried out by him and his team in promoting and developing peaceful uses of nuclear energy will surely benefit future generations. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Allow me also to offer our warm congratulations to the incoming Director General, Ambassador Yukiya Amano on his election as the next Director General of the Agency. I am sure that his rich experience and personal qualities will allow him to perform this high responsibility with talent, efficiency, determination and pragmatism.

My delegation would like to commend the Agency for the impressive gains made during the past year as evident from this report as well as the outcome of the 53rd General Conference held last September in Vienna. We are confident that the Agency will continue to play an active role in promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy and wider nuclear applications, including in human health, power generation, food security, water management as well as in preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The Government of Mongolia highly appreciates the active measures taken and valuable support provided by the Agency to its members, especially to developing countries.

Mongolia is stepping into a new phase of its nuclear activities for peaceful purposes and is taking concrete measures to develop nuclear energy and promote wider nuclear application, especially in health and agricultural areas . Thus, this year the Parliament of Mongolia adopted a state policy and an action plan on uranium utilization and nuclear energy. A Nuclear Energy Law was passed and took effect in August. The law is designed to regulate all issues pertaining to the exploitation of radioactive minerals and nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, nuclear and radiation safety, as well as the protection of the population, society and the environment from negative impacts of ionizing radiation.

To strengthen the country’s nuclear regulatory functions, the Government of Mongolia also established a Nuclear Energy Agency under the aegis of the Prime Minister to serve as the government regulatory agency.

Possessing large reserves of uranium, Mongolia is striving in further expanding cooperation with its partners on uranium production coupled with assistance from the IAEA.

Mr. President,

As in many other parts of the world, cancer morbidity and mortality are on the increase in my country. It has become the second major cause of mortality among the population. Bearing in mind the need to strengthen the diagnostic and treatment capacity as well as to improve quality and accessibility to preventive and patient-friendly cancer services, Mongolia has asked IAEA, especially its PACT (Program of Action for Cancer Therapy) office to provide the needed advice and assistance. As a follow-up to Director-General ElBaradei’s visit to Mongolia last April, pre-IMPACT and IMPACT missions have visited the country and would soon be presenting their findings and recommendations to the Government of Mongolia. I would like to take this opportunity to thank IAEA and its PACT office for their support and help to address this challenge of the XXI century.

Mr. President,

My delegation wishes to reaffirm Mongolia’s strong commitment to the goals of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. Together with other non-nuclear weapon states, it is working to make the forthcoming NPT review conference an important landmark in the common efforts to strengthening the NPT regime and taking practical steps towards a nuclear-weapon-free world.

With that in mind last April Mongolia hosted the first meeting of focal points of nuclear-weapon-free zones that adopted a statement as a contribution to preparation to the 2010 NPT review conference. I wish to inform the interested delegations that we have submitted the Chairman’s statement of the Ulaanbaatar meeting as an official document of this session of the General Assembly.

The NPT can fulfill its role only if Member States are confident in the compliance by others of their Treaty obligations. In this regard efficiency and effectiveness of the Agency’s safeguards system is of utmost importance. Today the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) is not adequate to allay the suspicions. Only integrated safeguards, i.e. the CSA and the Additional Protocol together can make safeguards most effective. Today they represent the verification standard. We call on all states that have not done so to sign or ratify these two important safeguard and verification instruments.

My Government attaches great importance to issues of strengthening world peace and stability, especially in North-East Asia. We have all along advocated that the Korean Peninsular should be denuclearized, that peace and stability there should be maintained and that the DPRK’s nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue. Likewise, the Iran nuclear issue should also be addressed through dialogue.

In conclusion, allow me to express my Mongolia’s resolve, as newly-elected member of the Agency’s Board of Governors, to work in close cooperation with IAEA’s entire membership and the Secretariat in promoting its noble goals.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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