Pakistan becomes first non-European country to become associate member of CERN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has become the associate member of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), making it the first non-European country to achieve the status.

Foreign Office (FO) said the Associate Membership is a recognition of Pakistan's impressive credentials in the field of science and technology in general and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in particular.

Pakistan has already made significant contributions to CERN's flagship experimental project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the FO said in an overnight statement, also announcing that the status was awarded yesterday.

"This makes Pakistan the first non-European country to achieve this status, which is a tribute to the dedicated scientists, technicians and engineers of Pakistan as well as its diplomats who have made this possible," FO said.

As an Associate Member, Pakistan looks forward to benefitting from, and contributing more intensively to, the increasingly innovative and challenging scientific initiatives undertaken at CERN, it said.

"Deeper involvement in such initiatives will bring long term benefits to the people of Pakistan and contribute to our socio-economic development through the use of scientific breakthroughs and innovative technologies," said FO.

The agreement between Pakistan and CERN for Associate Membership was signed in on December 19 last year in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"This follows notification that Pakistan has ratified an agreement signed in December, granting that status to the country," CERN said on its website yesterday.

The agreement took effect upon submission of the instrument of ratification on July 31 by ambassador Zamir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan in Geneva, to the Director-General of CERN.

"The Associate Membership of Pakistan will open a new era of cooperation that will strengthen the long-term partnership between CERN and the Pakistani scientific community," CERN said.

The Associate Membership will allow Pakistan to participate in the governance of the European physics research centre, through attending the meetings of the CERN Council.

Moreover, it will allow Pakistani scientists to become members of the CERN staff, and to participate in its training and career-development programmes, CERN said.

Finally, it will allow Pakistani industry to bid for CERN contracts, thus opening up opportunities for industrial collaboration in areas of advanced technology, it added.