The meeting organized by the Council, the most important decision-making body of the International Telecommunication Union-ITU, brought together member countries in Geneva.
Our institution participated in the 2022 ordinary meeting of the Council, the most important decision-making body of the International Telecommunication Union-ITU, of which our country is a founding member, held in Geneva between March 21-31, 2022, with a high-level delegation chaired by Board President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu representing our country.
Turkey has been continuously representing the Western European Region for 5 consecutive terms since 2002 among the 8 members in the Council, which consists of 48 members forming 25% of ITU member countries. Our country has a candidacy for re-election to the Council for the 2023-2026 period in the elections to be held at the Plenipotentiary Conference PP-22, ITU's highest authority conference, to be held in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, between September 26-October 14, 2022.
The Council's duties include establishing general telecommunication policies to ensure that ITU's activities, policies, and strategies are aligned with today's dynamic and rapidly changing telecommunication framework, preparing ITU's policy and strategy plans to achieve this, coordinating work programs, and approving budgets and expenditures. In this last meeting before PP-22, preparations for the PP-22 agenda hold significant importance. In this context, the Union's activities over the last four years, reports of the Council Working Groups, and Council Resolution Decisions were reviewed during the meeting, while the Union's Strategic and Financial Plans for the 2024-2027 period are also being prepared.
During the Council meeting, our contributions to various agenda items were shared, and contacts were made to announce and garner support for our Council's candidacy. Our delegation, chaired by Board President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, also held meetings with H.E. Ambassador Sadık Arslan, our country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Geneva Office, to conduct consultations on critical agenda items.
In addition, our delegation held bilateral meetings with ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) Chaesub Lee, and Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) Mario Maniewicz. The discussions covered important agenda items, strategies for ITU elections, and our country's Council membership candidacy. In the meetings with ITU management, attention was drawn to the contributions our country has made to ITU to date, emphasizing openness to continued cooperation in the future.
During the 2022 ITU Council meeting, bilateral meetings were also held with representatives from many Council-participating countries such as Azerbaijan, USA, China, Uganda, Kenya, Switzerland, Argentina, Spain, Pakistan, Malaysia, Canada, Iran, Niger, Kuwait, Japan, Niger, Tunisia, Lithuania, Philippines, Thailand, France, Qatar, particularly addressing strategies for the elections and support for our country's candidacy.
On March 24, 2022, our country hosted a coffee break to announce our candidacy and seek support.