In his farewell remarks as the outgoing Chair, Ambassador Šrámek expressed his outmost appreciation to all Board’s and IAEA’s Member States and the IAEA’s Secretariat for their trust and valuable support throughout his term in office. Looking back, he recalled some memorable moments of the Czech Chairmanship, including the last-minute negotiations of the IAEA’s budget in December 2022, whose successful result has made it possible for the IAEA to continue executing its mandate to the full extent. The overarching objective of the Czech Chairmanship was to support the Agency and its crucial functions.

A particularly luminous moment of the concluding ceremony was the presentation of the Czech gift to the IAEA. The gift – hand-made uranium art glassware made in Chechia – demonstrates the long history of research and technology development in peaceful nuclear field that is linked to Czech territories. The use of uranium compounds to obtain yellow-green glass has been known and documented in the territory of the present-day Czechia for almost 200 years. Uranium compounds that are used to color glass also cause its main eye-catching property – fluorescence in ultraviolet light. Nearly century after discovery of uranium, Marie Curie-Sklodowska isolated radium from uranium ores mined in Czech Jáchymov, which became a valuable source of this new element.

The uranium glass is now on display for public in the premises of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) / UN Office in Vienna.

We congratulate Ambassador Mr. Holger Federico Martinsen of Argentina on his election as the Chair of the Board for the term of office for 2023-2024. We also congratulate the Vice-Chairs, who are Ambassador Ms. Emilia Kraleva of Bulgaria and Ambassador Mr. Peter Potman of the Netherlands. We wish them all the success.