YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Suren Papikyan is taking part in the 64th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna from September 21 to 25, the ministry told Armenpress.

In his remarks the Armenian minister highly valued the IAEA help in terms of supporting its main activity fields and providing assistance to countries in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In this sense I would like to highlight the support provided to the member states aimed at ensuring the constant and safe operation of nuclear power plants. We are also grateful to the Director General and the IAEA secretariat for the technical support in the form of disinfectants and diagnosing devices provided to more than 120 countries, including Armenia, which strengthened the COVID-19 response capacities in these countries”, the minister said.

The minister also expressed his concern over Azerbaijan’s threat to strike Armenia’s Nuclear Power Plant, stating that Armenia views this statement as a real threat, drawing the attention of the Conference participants to the fact that for the first time the real threat directed to the security of the NPP comes not from a terrorist organization, but from a state, through its official representative. “The threat on blowing the Metsamor NPP voiced by the official representative of the Azerbaijani defense ministry during the armed clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is nothing else but a crime against humanity and should receive a respective reaction by the international community. Armenia will continue making all possible efforts to prevent similar threats in the future”, minister Suren Papikyan said.

The minister also touched upon the operation of the 2nd energy unit of the Armenian NPP, stating that nuclear energy has a special place in Armenia’s energy development program.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan