 Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon, colleagues. Chair, ITU Secretary General, and other elected officials, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, it is a great pleasure to be with you for the 2022 Plenty Potentiary Conference. And it's a great honor to deliver the national statement on behalf of the United States of America. First, I'd like to offer my congratulations to the Chair on his appointment to lead this conference and convey my sincere thanks to the Government of Romania for the very warm welcome that the U.S. delegation has received here in Bucharest. When the Plenty Potentiary Conference last convened in Dubai in 2018, no one could have envisioned what the next four years would look like. The COVID-19 pandemic is a tragedy on a global scale. We're relieved and thankful to have held two successful conferences this year alone and to be together again for the Plenty Potentiary Conference with our colleagues and friends. In the past four years, we have witnessed remarkable progress as well as challenges on global telecommunications issues. The pandemic highlighted the importance and necessity of affordable and meaningful connectivity and access to digital technologies. We watch social and economic activity move online, but we still need to take greater strides together in our home countries and here in the ITU to ensure all our citizens are connected. Online school only works if teachers and children have the right digital tools. Digital government services rely on resilient infrastructure and training. Unfortunately, we also face the current challenges resulting from the war in Ukraine. Leaders from countries developing and developed big and small, north and south have spoken about the consequences of this war and we need to end it and they've called on all of us to reaffirm our commitment to the UN Charter and its core principles including sovereignty, territorial integrity and human rights. Together in the global community we can make enormous progress. We can do this when we all work in peace together. This includes connecting the unconnected and improving both the level and the quality of telecommunications and ICTs. For example, since the last Plenty Potentiary 20% more people around the world have connected, many of them in developing countries. That is great news and something that we should celebrate but there is a lot more for us to do. The United States is committed to making further progress on these issues at home and abroad. In our own country we're working to ensure that every American has access to affordable high-speed internet to invest in resilient infrastructure in more secure networks that aligns with our values. We're also committed to working with the international community to achieve universal, affordable connectivity to close digital divides including the gender digital divide to equip people with digital skills to promote a secure and resilient digital environment and to leverage ICTs to tackle challenges like food security and climate change. To support this work I am pleased to announce that the United States plans to increase our assessed contribution rate to the ITU from 30 contributory units to 35 contributory units at this Plenty Potentiary conference. That increase represents that increase represents an additional 1.59 million Swiss francs per year to support the work of the ITU. The United States was also very excited to join the Partner to Connect Digital Coalition or P2C launched at the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Kigali. In just a few months, a coalition of UN agencies, governments, and the private sector have received over 450 pledges from partners in over 100 countries. That is 26 billion U.S. dollars worth of resources for the people that need it most. P2C is not just an extraordinary achievement for an international organization. It shows us what can be accomplished when we come together to tackle global problems. Partner to Connect is one of many examples why the United States is so proud to support the leadership of Miss Doreen Bogdan-Martin in her campaign to become the next Secretary General of the ITU. Doreen obviously needs no introduction to this body, but we can think of no better steward for the ITU, no one more qualified or as visionary to lead this organization than her. Doreen is the right person at the right time to support the ITU. On September 29th, I hope you will all support and vote for her. We would also be honored to receive your support for our reelection to the ITU council so that we can continue to contribute to this organization's important work. Together, here in Bucharest, we are embarking on an important and challenging undertaking over the next few weeks to chart the ITU's course. Connect and Unite is our conference theme. These are not independent goals, they are strictly linked. We must work together to connect the unconnected. Let us use our time together wisely to meet, talk, and exchange views and ideas and grow closer as a community of action united within the ITU. The United States looks forward to working with other ITU members here in Romania in the United States and worldwide. Thank you.