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Permanent Representative of Lithuania to International Organizations in Vienna, Ambassador Giedrius Puodžiūnas presented credentials to Kandeh K. Yumkella, the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and to Tibor Tóth, the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).During the conversation that followed the presentation of credentials to the head of UNIDO on 3 November, Ambassador G.Puodžiūnas assured that Lithuania was ready to contribute to the organization’s mission of enhancing industry capacities and to expand them gradually in developing countries and transition economies. The organization focuses on the world’s less developed countries and gives priority to African countries.

Director-General K.K.Yumkella noted that the world community would face new challenges of nuclear energy security, nuclear material control and nuclear non-proliferation due to the willingness of many African countries to implement nuclear energy projects.  According to K.K.Yumkella, sharing the latest industrial technology and developing eco-friendly industries in developing countries would effectively prevent the emergence of new threats.

At the meeting on 4 November with the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO, Ambassador G.Puodžiūnas affirmed Lithuania’s consistent position on achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.

Aiming to achieve this goal, Lithuania actively supports the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Ambassador G.Puodžiūnas expressed satisfaction with an ever-increasing number of countries that signed and ratified the treaty.  In a decade their number increased by a hundred and currently amounts to one hundred and fifty states.

Executive Secretary T.Tóth highlighted the importance of the efforts by the Secretariat of this organization and by the parties to the treaty when aiming for the treaty to come into force as soon as possible. T.Tóth took interest in closer cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which will be chaired by Lithuania in 2011.

Lithuania together with major nuclear states and other countries signed the CTBT in October 1996.  The Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania ratified this document in 2000. Parties to the CTBT are obligated not to carry out any nuclear weapon testing or any other nuclear explosion in any environment. The treaty provides for an extensive verification regime including an International Monitoring System to detect nuclear explosions that are conducted at various sites around the world.