Addressing the week-long event, the minister pointed out the importance of the fact that for the first time the meeting would elect a Croatian representative to the IAEA Council of Governors for a two-year term.
"I think that it is important to insist on the implementation of fundamental objectives as guarantees that nuclear technology will be used for civilian purposes," Grabar-Kitarovic said, adding that Zagreb believed that active cooperation, dialogue and negotiations on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons had no alternative.
Since 1993, when it became an IAEA member, Croatia has developed and implemented many projects of technical cooperation covering a wide area of application of nuclear technology in medicine, security of radioactive sources and the storage of radioactive material.
For the 2007-2008 period Croatia is proposing five new projects, worth some USD900,000, to be implemented in Croatia in cooperation with the IAEA, including research in medicine, subterranean water projects in Dalmatia, etc.
At the Vienna event, Croatia joined the European Union in its statement about the importance of the role of the IAEA in global security.