The 1st meeting of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Community (APT) Preparatory Group for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 was held on July 1, 2021 via video conferencing.

The event was attended by 109 delegates from APT member countries and observers, including representatives from ITU, ITU regional organizations and international organizations.

The meeting was attended by the RCC delegation, including representatives of the following countries: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, as well as employees of the RCC Executive Committee.

The above event was opened by the General Secretary of APT, Masanori Kondo, who stressed that the Plenipotentiary Conference is the central event of ITU and APT will traditionally take an active part in the preparation and conduct of this ITU event.

The Secretary-General of APT also briefly outlined the APT Work Plan in preparation for the 2022 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

Mr. Darvishi (Iran), Deputy Chairman of the APT Preparatory Group for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference of 2018, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech and conducted the introductory part of the meeting.

The meeting agenda included:

- Approval of the agenda;

- Election of the Chairman and Vice Chairmen of the APT Preparatory Group for PP-22;

- On the preparation of ITU and Regional Organizations for PP-22;

- Consideration of the structure of the preparatory group APT for preparation for PC-22;

- Review of the working methods of the APT Preparatory Group for PP-22 preparation;

- Appointment of officials of the APT PC-22 working groups;

- Consideration of the Work Plan for the preparation of PK-22;

- Preliminary discussion of key issues on APT PC-22;

- Consideration and adoption of final documents;

- Date and place of the 2nd meeting of the APT Preparatory Group for PP-22;

- Closing.

Carolina Greenway (Papua New Guinea) was elected Chair of the Preparatory Group for APT for PP-22, who spoke with words of gratitude and outlined the main tasks of the group. Subsequently, the meeting was chaired by her.

The representatives of China, Iran and Korea were elected Vice-Chairmen of the group.

In line with the Agenda of the meeting, ITU Representative Catalin Marinescu spoke about the structure and process of preparing ITU for the 2022 Plenipotentiary Conference.

The representative of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunication Administrations (CEPT) Oli Bird gave an overview of the preparation of CEPT for PP-22.

Muhammad Benziani spoke about the preparation of the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) for PK-22. It was also reported that the 1st meeting of the ATU Preparatory Group will be held at the end of July this year.

On behalf of the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications, the Deputy Head of the Department of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NIIR Yevgeny Viktorovich Tonkikh spoke about the preparations for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in 2022.

Information was provided on the results of the work on preparation for PP-22, carried out within the framework of the RCC. He also made an overview of proposals for PP-22 discussed at the meetings of the RCC Working Bodies.

In addition, Tonkikh E.V. emphasized that Ismailov R.R. was nominated for the post of ITU General-Secretary from the Russian Federation.

During the APT meeting, a discussion was held on the structure of the Working Groups for PP-22. It was proposed to create three groups dealing with the following areas:

- political and legal issues;

- administrative and management issues;

- general issues.

Mina Seomin Jun from the Republic of Korea was elected Chair of Working Group 1. The next meeting of the PP-22 APT Preparatory Group is scheduled according to the following schedule:

- January-February 2022;

- in May-June 2022;

- in July-August 2022.

At the end of the meeting, APT General-Secretary Masanori Kondo summed up the meeting and thanked all the participants for their work.