OREANDA-NEWS. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should continue to work as a depoliticized mechanism to verify countries' obligations in the field of the peaceful uses of the atom. This was announced on Friday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the 4th Moscow Conference on Non-Proliferation.

“The IAEA itself should remain a professional, technical instrument for verifying obligations and guarantees, play a central role in international cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy”, Lavrov said. “We have no doubt that the IAEA safeguards system must remain effective, depoliticized, to rely on international law and agreements reached under international law".

“We welcome the appointment by the Governing Council of the Permanent Representative of Argentina in Vienna, Rafael Grossi, to the position of the new Director General of the Agency”, he added. “He has a very responsible task to promote an agenda that will unite Member States and maintain a spirit of friendly collective consensus work”. Grossi was elected IAEA Director on October 29.