The delegation of Ukraine took part in the Fifth Extraordinary Meeting and the Organizational Meeting to Prepare for the Eighth Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (hereinafter referred to as the Joint Convention), which took place at the IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, on March 25-28, 2024. The purpose of these organizational events was to consider proposals for improving the procedural circulars of the Joint Convention, taking into account the growing number of contracting parties, to prepare for the next Eighth Meeting of the Parties to the Joint Convention scheduled for March 2025, to appoint the President and Vice-Presidents of the Eighth Meeting and other officers of the Meeting, to determine the composition of the working groups of contracting parties to review national reports on the implementation of obligations under the Joint Convention.

At the beginning of the event, the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi addressed the participants with a welcoming speech, emphasizing the importance of international conventions, including the Joint Convention, as a tool for ensuring the highest standards of nuclear and radiation safety at the international level, dissemination of best practices and technologies in the field of nuclear energy.

IAEA Deputy Director General Lydie Evrard emphasized that preparatory activities are crucial to ensure an effective review process under the Joint Convention and successful holding of the next Eighth Meeting of the Parties.

During the Fifth Extraordinary Meeting, the main attention was paid to consideration of the proposals of the Contracting Parties regarding:

• formation of unified transparent approaches to the identification, evaluation, and generalization of "good practices" of the contracting parties in the preparation, submission, and consideration of national reports;
• training of officers of groups of countries nominated to ensure the workflow for the submission and review of national reports during the Eighth Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention.

In his speech at the Fifth Extraordinary Meeting, the Head of the delegation of Ukraine, Oleh Korikov, emphasized the importance of ensuring an open, impartial process of submission and consideration of national reports of the contracting parties at the meetings of the working groups of the parties during the Eighth Meeting of the Parties. A sensitive issue in this regard is the process of forming groups of countries and the selection of officers to support the work of the working groups of the parties (chairpersons, deputy chairpersons, reporters, coordinators). In this regard, it was noted that it is unacceptable to appoint representatives of countries in a state of war, hostilities, or armed conflicts to the same working group.

Based on the results of the work of the Ukrainian delegation in the organizational activities for the Eighth Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention, measures were taken to prevent the influence of the russian federation on the results of the work in the working group and allowed Ukraine to further strengthen support for countries with developed nuclear energy and industry, namely:

• the candidate for the post of President of the Eighth Meeting of the Parties - a representative of Canada - was supported;
• the candidates for the post of Vice-Presidents of the Eighth Meeting of the Parties - representatives of the United States and France - were supported;
• Ukraine was not included in the same group of countries as russia and belarus;
• prevented the appointment of representatives of the russian federation and belarus to the group of countries that included Ukraine.