Remarks by Assistant Secretary Strickling at ICANN High Level Governmental Meeting

The first Accountability and Transparency Team recommended holding these meetings as a way to increase the level of support and commitment of governments to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) multistakeholder process.

In London, the ICANN board will be making its formal response to that latest set of recommendations.

In April 2014, we communicated at the NETmundial meeting in Brazil a number of conditions that we insist must apply to the transition.

First, the proposal must support and enhance the multistakeholder model in that it should be developed by the multistakeholder community and have broad community support. More specifically, we will not accept a transition proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or intergovernmental organization solution.

Second, the proposal must maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the domain name system. And in that regard, all we have put on the table is a transitioning of our role. Due to the need to maintain security and stability, we have not asked for an evaluation of the role of ICANN and Verisign in this process.

Third, it must meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services. And finally, it must maintain the openness of the Internet.