After repeated calls from Member States, the Director-General of IAEA finally submitted to the 22nd. September meeting of the Board of Governors, a written report on AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation between Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
This is a step in the right direction in terms of procedure. However, at the same time, substantively the report lacks a proper legal basis. It { relevant report} selectively quotes Agency's documents and oversteps its responsibilities and competence by drawing misleading conclusions. These may already constitute violations of the Secretariat's responsibilities under the IAEA Statute.
On the Secretariat's behavior in overstepping its responsibilities, the spokesperson of the Chinese permanent mission in Vienna gave the following opinion:
In China's view, the Secretariat, including the Director General, cannot override Member States, especially the Board of Governors which is the supreme policy-making organ; nor can the Secretariat undertake activities without due mandates from Member States.
The duties of the Secretariat and the Director General are clearly defined in Article 7B and F of the Statute of the Agency, Rules 37 and 39 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Conference, and Rules 8 and 10 of the Rules of Procedure of the Board of Governors. In view of these Articles and the Rules of Procedure, the relationship between the Member States and the Director General and the Secretariat is abundantly explicit and unambiguous. Both the Director General and the Secretariat shall be under the authority of, and subject to, the control of the Board of Governors and perform their duties mandated.
The AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation goes well beyond, and transgresses against, the existing international nuclear non-proliferation system. Nor does this cooperation fall within the ambit of the duties of the Secretariat. It is not a matter, which can be handled by the three countries on their own. It must be addressed by all IAEA members. The Secretariat should and can only act in accordance with mandates from Member States under the IAEA Statute as well as the Rules of Procedure of the Board of Governors and the General Conference.
If the three countries do not stop their above-mentioned cooperation, all Member States of the Agency have the responsibility and obligation to tell them what to do by working out, through the intergovernmental consultation process, an agreed formula to address this issue. An appropriate report, with recommendations, on such an agreed formula can then accordingly be submitted to the Agency's Board of Governors and the General Conference.
Pending consensus among Member States, the three countries should refrain from pushing ahead their nuclear submarine cooperation programmes. For its part, the Agency's Secretariat should not proceed further on any safeguards arrangement relating to the three countries' nuclear submarine cooperation under AUKUS, especially as there is no mandate from Member States.