Mr. Chairperson,

I thank the delegation of Belarus for the reminder about the 32^nd anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. Ukraine has been among the most affected countries and continues to bear the main burden of mitigating the aftermaths of this major nuclear accident.

Today the President of Ukraine visited the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, paid tribute to the liquidators of the accident and inspected the works on the site to make it an environmentally safe object. Speaking on the occasion of the anniversary, he stressed, in particular, that “we must draw lessons from those events. The modern Chornobyl zone must become a place of new progressive technologies, a territory of change”.

Although the OSCE has limited capacity and expertise in the area of nuclear safety, it has contributed to international co-operation in alleviating the consequences of the Chornobyl accident through participation in and support of relevant projects.

Commemorating today the victims of this tragedy, we should remember the painful lessons of Chornobyl in order to prevent future technological failures and to appropriately address the current environmental threats and challenges, especially in the conflict-affected areas.

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.