 Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference, WRC 23 here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I've got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio by Ambassador Nate Fick who is Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy for the United States State Department. Ambassador, welcome to the studio. Pleasure to be with you. Thank you. Now, you are the US State Department's first ever ambassador for cyberspace and I believe that when you were first appointed you were sworn in in very modest surroundings and you came straight to an ITU conference of all things. Now you're here attending another ITU conference at WRC and perhaps you can tell me why this event is important to you. Sure. Yes, I was sworn in very hastily at a UPS store in order to begin the mission to Bucharest in the in the run-up to the last Plenty Pot. So the ITU will always have a special place in my memory and I'm pleased to be here with the US delegation for this WRC. The US delegation is almost 200 strong, a strong interagency mix and people from across our private sector. Why is the World Radio Communication Conference important? So I think we all recognize that spectrum in a lot of ways is fueling our future innovation across a whole set of national economic priorities, national security priorities and of course continuing to advance a vibrant private sector. What are the United States delegation's priorities here? I think we have three broad priorities along with our allies and partners and the first is to expand connectivity through 5G, 6G and Wi-Fi innovation. So we're looking at expanding the amount of mid-band spectrum that's allocated for terrestrial 5G and then looking ahead to future 6G use. Our second overarching priority is to look ahead to the space economy and recognize that one of the great trend lines in our society is really to orbital outer space and also to a greater enduring presence on the moon. And then third of course we have to safeguard a set of national security priorities, maritime and aviation priorities, incumbent uses and ensure that we have enough spectrum available for those. Now I knew we've just kicked off really, this is a long conference over four weeks. I wonder have there been any highlights for you so far? There's so many just in the first few days. I really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to sit down and meet bilaterally with counterparts and those of us who are on this global circuit on these topics end up building relationships and so it's a pleasure to see colleagues and even friends again here and be able to talk about these things in a very frank way because it's not our first conversation but it's our sixth or eighth or tenth conversation. Like you say there are plenty of conversations being had here. There's a lot of looking forward to the future. What are your hopes for the future? I think again we're on the cusp of a wave of accelerating innovation across the telecom space. It wasn't that long ago that the popular narrative was that telecom was slowing down and of course that wasn't true then, it's not true now. And so we look ahead now to 6G and incredible advances in non-terrestrial connectivity which bring with it opportunities to connect the third of the world that's still disconnected. And you've only just started your mandate, are you enjoying this new role? I think it's the best and most consequential portfolio I can imagine and so it's a great pleasure to be here with the US delegation and also with our allies and partners from around the world. We're very pleased to have had you here in the studio and here at the conference. Ambassador Natvik, thank you so much for joining us and I hope to catch up with you again in the not too distant future. Thank you. And if you've enjoyed this interview which I'm sure you must have then we've got plenty more at the ITU YouTube channel as well as our podcast on SoundCloud Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts and for further information please visit our website at www.itu.int. Thanks for tuning in.