International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was established in 1865. It is the oldest international organization of the UN system and the leading United Nations agency in the field of information and communication technologies. An organization based on public-private partnership since its inception, ITU currently has a membership of 193 countries and almost 800 private-sector entities and academic institutions. Belarus is a full member of the ITU since 1947.
Belarus takes an active part in the meetings of the ITU expert and governing bodies. Cooperation with the organization makes it possible to use the results of ITU activities and the development of other countries for the development of the national telecommunications industry, to participate in the planning and development of a unified policy for communication facilities development, and to take decisions on the admission of new telecommunications and information technologies to the market.
In November 2009, following the ITU “Connect the World” initiative the “Connect CIS” Summit" was held in Minsk.
On the margins of the summit the President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko met with ITU Secretary-General H.Thure. A joint declaration of the CIS countries “Towards a digital future” — a political statement on the commitment of the CIS countries to promote the implementation of the WSIS concept and goals — was adopted as an outcome of the Summit.
In April 2016, the President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko met with the ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao during his visit to Belarus.
In November 2016, an Agreement between Belarus and ITU on assisting the organization in monitoring harmful interference from satellites using the capabilities of the Belarusian radiation control station was signed. Inclusion of the Belarusian station in the international network of monitoring stations is an important step towards the world recognition of Belarus as a space power.
In April 2017, H. Zhao made another visit to Belarus. During the meeting of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov with the ITU Secretary General, an initiative has been put forward to improve the level of ITU representation in the region. The initiative was unanimously endorsed by the ITU Council of 2017 and 2018. During 2018-2019 ITU has carried out organizational change required for the implementation of the ITU Council’s decision to improve the level of ITU representation in the region. In February 2020 at the meeting of the Consultative group for the development Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, introduced Natalia Mochu, new director othe the ITU Regional Office for CIS.
The Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus is the leading republican body for cooperation with ITU.
On the margins of the 20th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference held from 1 to 5 November 2018 in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), ITU senior management elections were held:
- Mr. Houlin Zhao, representative of the People's Republic of China, was re-elected Secretary General of the ITU for the next term;
- Mr. Malcolm Johnson, representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was re-elected ITU Deputy Secretary General;
- Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, representative of the United States, was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau;
- Mr. Chaesub Lee, representative of the Republic of Korea, was re-elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau;
- Mr. Mario Manevich, representative of Uruguay, was elected Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau.
The elected leaders of the International Telecommunication Union came into office on January 1, 2019.
The main event of 2019 was the World Radiocommunication Conference which was held from October 28 to November 22, 2019, in the city of Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt).
The conference resulted in the identification of globally agreed millimeter wave bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), including IMT-2020 (the so-called “5G Mobile Telecommunications”), adopted documents regulating the issues of terrestrial and satellite services, as well as conditions for the use of new radio technologies. One of the key issues of the conference was the amendment of the provisions of the Radio Regulations to meet the spectrum requirements for actively developing radio technologies of mobile and satellite communications.
