At the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) Meeting (COM-ITU) in London, Dr. Thomas Zielke had the chance to exchange views with Paul Gaskell, from the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Special thanks go to Julia Gross, the German Embassy's Chargée d’Affaires, who warmly welcomed the delegations as the campaign hosted the reception of Germany on the occasion of his ITU-T candidacy at the British Academy, Carlton Terrace on May 19. Zielke also met with Tomas Lamanauskas, candidate for the post of ITU Deputy Secretary General and participated in the Lithuanian reception on the occasion of his candidacy. Apart from meeting with the leadership of COM-ITU and the European delegations Zielke had a conversation with Marta Castillo, representing the economic department at the Cuban Embassy in London.

Germany is proud to be among the founders of ITU in 1865 and to be a member of the ITU Council. In order to further underscore Germany’s commitment, Zielke is running for election as Director of the Telecommunications Standardization Bureau of ITU. Besides, Germany is running for a seat on the ITU Council in 2022.

If elected, Zielke aims to secure that ITU remains future-proof. One key will be a close cooperation between ITU-T and ITU-D. More to come from World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) in Geneva this week and from the World Telecommunication and Development Conference (WTDC) in Kigali next week.