Participants in a meeting of the Committee for Internet Governance under the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, which took place on November 30, discussed the debates on various international platforms concerning internet governance. The meeting was also attended by Andrei Zhivov, head of the International Organizations Department of the International Cooperation Department, Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.
The participants said that in the past year there have been visible changes both in the trend and the direction of activity by those involved in internet governance. For instance, for the first time, their Chinese colleagues (the Wuzhen Summit) had taken part in the 2018 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Paris. The participants in the meeting who had attended 2018 IGF shared their impressions of the forum. In their view, the roles of major players like the US and China, have rapidly changed: the USA is now promoting the national model, while China is now moving into globalism and striving to expand its technology. The common trend among all the governments is the intention to regulate the network. Thus, in his speech at the opening of the IGF in Paris, the President of France said that the government should regulate the internet in order to retain its freedom. Russian representatives who take part in international meetings at various levels are also interested in this issue.
“This year, the Coordination Center managed to organize and hold numerous meetings with the participation of government agencies at the international level. In the regions, people pay attention to us, they listen to us. We need to develop and continue this dialogue and maintain the interest of our audience. In order to credibly represent the Russian position on international platforms, we need to involve more representatives from government agencies,” said chair of the Committee for Internet Governance and deputy director of the Coordination Center Andrey Romanov.
Participants in the meeting outlined the areas where there is the most effective cooperation on international platforms. These are technical issues, mostly related to the development of standards, as well as interaction with ICANN and the global agenda regarding internet development. They also noted that it is necessary to strengthen and give structure to the interaction, and agreed to continue discussions on this at the next meeting.
