PH Ambassador Elected President of IAEA General Conference
Ambassador Maria Zeneida Angara Collinson, President of the 61st General Conference of the IAEA
18 September 2017 VIENNA – Philippine Ambassador Maria Zeneida Angara Collinson was elected President of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday, September 18 in Vienna. This is only the fourth time since the establishment of the IAEA in 1957 that a Philippine official was elected President from among 169 Member States. She is also only the third woman to serve in that capacity.
The week-long 61st General Conference is being held amidst global concern on persistent North Korean nuclear and ballistic testing in defiance of the international community’s call for a cessation of its nuclear program and its return to the negotiating table.
Angara – Collinson will preside over discussions and debate on other contentious issues such as: unresolved matters on a suspected undeclared nuclear facility in Syria, the establishment of a nuclear-weapons free zone in the Middle East, and Israeli nuclear capabilities.
The IAEA General Conference is expected to approve several resolutions on nuclear security and safety, nuclear science and technology and nuclear applications in various areas including health, agriculture, environment, and industry.
Ambassador Angara - Collinson is scheduled to announce the approval of the General Conference of a third term of four years for Director-General Yukiya Amano from Japan. Amano has been credited for promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Ambassador Collinson is a career Foreign Service Officer. Before her assignment as Ambassador to Austria with concurrent jurisdiction in Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia, she served in Sweden, Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan.
Ambassador Angara- Collinson is the Resident Representative of the Philippines to the UN and International Organizations in Vienna. END
For more information, visit www.viennape.dfa.gov.ph/ www.philippine-embassy.at.