The 4th Annual Meeting of Asia-Pacific Safeguards Network (APSN)

The Asia-Pacific Safeguards Network met for its 4th plenary meeting in Indonesia on November 2013. The plenary was attended by 34 representatives from 14 countries, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as observers. Working Group 5 was formally recognised and renamed as ‘Physical protection in support of strengthening safeguards’. It was agreed that the performance and continuation of Working Group 5 would be reassessed in two years. Dr Floyd as the APSN Chair, noted that Australia has held the chair of APSN in both the 2010-12 and the 2012-14 period and strongly encouraged APSN members to consider a new chair and secretariat when Dr Floyd’s current term expires at the 2014 plenary meeting, to ensure that the task of chair is shared among APSN members. On the question of the period of Dr Floyd’s current appointment as Chair, the plenary agreed that the current appointment expires at the end of the 2014 plenary, not the beginning. The 2013 APSN meeting was structured differently from previous meetings by having a few days of WG discussions followed by one day of plenary discussions. The plenary was designed to be higher level suitable for heads of agencies that may attend, but being focussed primarily on reporting on progress and future plans for WGs, APSN administration and direction, and decision making on aspects of APSNs. The plenary agreed that this was a good model for future meetings.