Kazakhstan wants to obtain seat in IAEA board but not through the courts

Kazakhstan wants its official representative to have a seat on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, the country’s authorities won’t seek this goal through the courts. Kazakhstan is going to introduce a resolution about its intention at the organization’s upcoming general conference in Vienna, according to Aybek Smadiyarov, the official spokesperson of the country’s MFA.

What happened? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan stated that it won’t sue the IAEA over the absence of representatives of Kazakhstan on the organization’s board.

«Over the entire history of the IAEA Kazakhstan is the first country that has codified a list of 17 countries which are listed in some regional groups of the IAEA, but has no right to have a representative in executive bodies of the IAEA. This list includes Central Asia countries, Israel, Bahrain, Cambodia and others. In this regard, Kazakhstan is going to raise this issue at the upcoming IAEA general conference in Vienna,» Tengrinews reported, citing Smadiyarov.

The official underlined that this is going to be a consensus resolution, not a legal case.

The context. According to Bloomberg, Kazakhstan is fed up with IAEA treating it as a «second-class citizen.» Later, some media outlets reported that the country is going to obtain a seat on the organization board through the courts.

Why does Kazakhstan want to get a seat on the IAEA board? According to Bloomberg, since the Cold War era, all rules concerning the safety and security of the global atomic industry have been made by a closed board, which consists of 35 members. At the same time, some big players in this business, Kazakhstan for example, have no representatives on the IAEA board.

In terms of uranium reserves, Kazakhstan is the second biggest producer of uranium (after Australia), which accounts for about two-fifths of all the uranium produced in the world.

The IAEA board includes representatives from Australia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Burundi, Vietnam, Guatemala, Germany, Denmark, India, Ireland, Canada, Qatar, Kenya, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Libya, Namibia, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, the U.K., the U.S., Turkey, Uruguay, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, South Africa and Japan.