The XVIII Meeting of the Board of the Regional Cooperation Agreement for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARCAL) Representatives (BAR) has been held on 19 September 2017 in Vienna, Austria, in the framework of the 61st IAEA General Conference. This meeting was attended by representatives of ARCAL States Parties of the region, including Belize as a new ARCAL State Party. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for the representatives to review the activities carried out by the different bodies of the agreement during the period September 2016 to September 2017, and also to adopt the relevant reports.
The meeting was opened by the outgoing Chairman of the BAR, H.E. Mr. Marcel Fortuna Biato, Ambassador and Resident Representative of Brazil to the IAEA, who later transferred the Chairmanship of the BAR to H.E. Ms. Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, Ambassador and Resident Representative of Mexico to the IAEA. Mexico will be the Chair of the Body of Representatives for the next two years and will have the support of Cuba as Vice-Chair and Brazil as Secretary.
The meeting was attended by four Deputy Directors General of the IAEA. Mr. Dazhu Yang, Head of the Technical Cooperation Department and Mr. Aldo Malavasi, Head of the Nuclear Applications Department, who both emphasized the importance of strengthening ARCAL's mechanisms to promote, through the IAEA's Technical Cooperation Programme, the potential of nuclear technologies and applications. Mr. Juan Carlos Lentijo, Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, and Ms Mary Alice Hayward, Head of the Department of Management and Administration, also presented the activities carried out by their respective Departments in collaboration with the Department of Technical Cooperation.
The meeting was also attended by the representative of the Government of Spain, Ms. Pilar García, as an associate country to ARCAL. The current Chair of the Regional Cooperation Agreement for Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology for Asia and the Pacific (RCA) was also present.
