On April 7, heads and representatives of ccTLDs and new gTLDs from Russia, CIS countries and Eastern Europe gathered in Moscow to mark the 25th anniversary of the .RU domain. They attended the Russian Internet Governance Forum RIGF 2019 held on April 8 and the RIPE NCC Day conference on April 9 that was also part of the anniversary events and got together well-known technical experts from Russia, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
The anniversary events began with a roundtable discussion organized by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ. Its participants, who represented IDN ccTLD registries from Ukraine, Belorussia, Serbia and Armenia as well as New gTLDs .ДЕТИ, .РУС, .МОСКВА, overviewed the current initiatives in IDN development and discussed opportunities and prospects of IDN and EAI full implementation and support in the region.
Following the meeting, they outlined a plan of joint work on support of the Universal Acceptance principles in the region and decided to establish the Universal Acceptance Regional Coordination Group of CIS and Eastern Europe as well as its Russian branch, the Universal Acceptance Russian Working Group.
Universal Acceptance is one of the most widely discussed topics at international forums today. For example, it was among the main topics at ICANN 64 conference held in Kobe, Japan, this April. It was even discussed at Public Forum, one of the main ICANN 64 sections, where any conference participant could ask ICANN Board a question. The ICANN 64 participants agreed that more active educational work as well as coordination between all the stakeholders involved in the Universal Acceptance processes were necessary.
In addition, the Coordination Center delegation and representatives of .МОСКВА and .ДЕТИ IDN TLD registries met with UASG (Universal Acceptance Steering Group) members during ICANN 64. At the meeting, they agreed to closely cooperate in developing information materials to promote the principles of Universal Acceptance in the region.
