IAEA Board of Governors
Agenda item 6c: The Safeguards Implementation Report for 2024
10 June 2025
Statement by H.E Ambassador Ian Biggs, Governor and Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA
Thank you chair.
Australia thanks the Director General for the 2024 Safeguards Implementation Report.
We commend the IAEA’s continued progress in cooperation with Member States, on measures to strengthen the effectiveness and improve the efficiency of IAEA safeguards.
We welcome the IAEA’s reporting on the implementation and review of State-level safeguards approaches, which are fully consistent with the mandate provided to the IAEA in the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements and reinforced by past Board decisions. We also appreciate the IAEA’s willingness to educate Member States on acquisition path analysis. This was covered in the IAEA’s second Masterclass on Advanced Safeguards in April 2025, involving seven countries from the Asia Pacific and hosted by Australia.
Chair
We welcome the work done by the Agency in encouraging States to conclude new safeguards agreements or update existing agreements to modern verification standards. We call upon all States that have not yet brought an Additional Protocol into force to do so as soon as possible. As a member of the Group of Friends of the Additional Protocol, Australia was pleased to join the statement delivered by Japan on behalf of the group.
We welcome the fact that, in 2024, Timor-Leste brought an Additional Protocol into force, Nauru signed an Additional Protocol and Morocco achieved the broader conclusion for the first time. We also welcome the conclusion by Somalia and Equatorial Guinea of a CSA and Additional Protocol at this Board meeting.
We note that the Agency was unable to draw safeguards conclusions for 15 Member States with the original standard text small quantities protocol to their CSA. We call on these states to amend or rescind their original SQPs and support the Agency’s continued engagement to assist these States in concluding and implementing updated safeguards agreements. Australia is proud of the contributions the Asia-Pacific Safeguards Network has made to this effort, and we are continuing this work as the current Chair of that network.
Chair
We remain deeply concerned that Russia's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine has undermined the essential safeguards work of the IAEA in Ukraine. Australia calls on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory immediately, and return control of Ukrainian nuclear sites to the Ukrainian authorities.
We commend the IAEA’s continued efforts to engage with Iran, but note with concern that the outstanding issues under Iran’s NPT Safeguards Agreement remain unresolved and that, due to Iran’s non-implementation of the JCPOA, the IAEA is unable to restore continuity of knowledge of Iran’s production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate.
Chair
We welcome efforts to improve gender parity in the Safeguards Department, including in the Professional and higher categories and for safeguards inspectors, and encourage the Agency to continue to accelerate these efforts.
We also note that the SIR includes a section on naval nuclear propulsion. We welcome the Agency’s ongoing engagement and consultation with Australia on our acquisition of naval nuclear propulsion technology, including discussions on technical elements of an Article 14 arrangement and on facilitation of IAEA verification, in accordance with its legal mandate. As at previous Board meetings, an update will be provided on Australia’s naval nuclear propulsion program under Any Other Business.
And finally Chair
We ask that the Safeguards Statement for 2024 as contained in GOV/2025/22 and the Background to the Safeguards Statement and Summary be made publicly available.
Thank you Chair.