(IAEA Vienna, 7th November 2005)

High level negotiators from China, European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States met at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna on 7th November 2005 to advance the ITER negotiations. This was the first such meeting since the successful resolution of the siting issue for ITER at the Meeting of Ministers in Moscow on 28th June 2005.

Designation of Director General Nominee
Following interviews with all Parties, the negotiators unanimously agreed on the proposal of Japan to designate Mr Kaname IKEDA as Director General Nominee for the prospective ITER Organisation. Mr IKEDA, who is currently Ambassador of Japan to Croatia, is a graduate Nuclear Engineer and has extensive experience in the management of large scale high technology projects and international co-operations. The Parties asked Mr IKEDA to take up his duties promptly.

Possible Accession of India to ITER
The Parties discussed the possibility of accession by India to ITER. All Parties expressed positive views on this possibility and encouraged India to take the next step towards accession by providing a letter to the Parties officially requesting to join ITER. The international ITER Team is now working with the Parties and India to review the necessary adjustments to be made to the provisional allocations among ITER Parties of responsibilities for procuring of components.

Joint Implementation of ITER
The Parties had constructive discussions of outstanding aspects of joint implementation and agreed on principles to guide the finalisation of the draft ITER Agreement and completion of the Negotiations.

Conclusion
With the progress made in the Parties’ working level discussions since June 28th and the significant steps made at this meeting, all Parties expressed their wish and expectation that the negotiations will be successfully concluded in the very near future, leading to the start of construction at the earliest possible date. With the possible accession of India, countries representing more than half of the world’s population would become part of this unique project to help secure the world’s future needs for energy.