Agenda Item 3: Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) Project
International Atomic Energy Agency
Board of Governors’ Meetings
(September 2020)
Agenda Item 3:
Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) Project
Statement by the Governor for India
Ambassador Jaideep Mazumdar
Madam Chair,
At the outset I thank you for your warm welcome to me and other new Governors.
Since this is the first time I am taking the floor in the Board of Governors since my arrival in Vienna, let me take this opportunity to extend my warm greetings and good wishes to you, and through you, to the Distinguished Members of the Board of Governors, the Director General and the Secretariat.
Madam Chair
1. We associate ourselves with the Statement made by the distinguished Ambassador of The Philippines on behalf of G-77 and China and would like to add the following remarks in our national capacity.
2. We express solidarity with all Member States of the Agency who have been affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic. India has been cooperating with many of them bilaterally as well as multilaterally in building capacity to combat the pandemic, sharing best practices, supplying medicines and medical equipment as well as personal protective equipment. This is because we believe that all nations are in this together and all have to cooperate both in countering the pandemic as well as in the recovery effort that will be required.
3. In the past too, Zoonotic diseases have had a significant impact on human health and socio-economic development but this has been brought most starkly home by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nuclear science and allied technologies are important for assisting Member States in combating these diseases.
4. We commend the initiative of the Director General in providing assistance to Member States in their efforts to tackle the effects of the pandemic, including through the nuclear derived techniques and related equipment. In this regard, we take note with appreciation, of the Director General’s report titled “Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) Project, Early Detection and Global Response”, as contained in GOV/INF/2020/13, GOV/2020/37 as well as the technical briefings provided to Member States.
5. We recognise ZODIAC as augmenting existing IAEA nuclear science & technology applications & structures and technical cooperation programe projects to assist Members States in building and strengthening resilience to future outbreaks of zoonotic diseases by making available access to equipment, technology packages, expertise, training and certification support. This is very much within the mandate of the IAEA.
6. The world is confronted with a health peril that is unprecedented in a hundred years. There can be no more consequential use of resources today than in doing what will address this and future pandemics. The human misery and economic collapse seen worldwide is testimony to this. We are of the view that concern about overlapping mandates is less important than maximizing the use of capacities and capabilities that exist for this purpose.
7. We understand that discussions on this subject will continue and we look forward to engaging with Member States and with the Secretariat to find a way to endorse this project which we believe is of far reaching import.
I thank You, Madam chair
