October 2, 2022

China's permanent mission to the United Nations (UN) in Vienna on Friday thwarted an amendment proposed by the AUKUS countries to legitimize their nuclear submarine cooperation at a meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog, the mission's head has said.

At this week's General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia proposed an amendment to an IAEA safeguards resolution in an effort to legitimize their submarine deal in the context of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) but later withdrew it after China's opposition.

Wang Qun, China's permanent representative to the UN in Vienna, said on Friday after the meeting that since November 2021, when China initiated an intergovernmental review process over the AUKUS submarine deal at the IAEA's board meeting, it's the first time that the agency reviewed the deal at the level of the general conference.

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