Asian Pacific Postal Union

India has taken over the leadership of the Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU) having its Headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand from January 2023.

Details –

Following the successful elections held during the 13th APPU Congress held in Bangkok during August-September 2022, Dr. Vinaya Prakash Singh, erstwhile Member (Personnel), Postal Services Board will take over the charge of Secretary General of the Union for a tenure of 4 years.

About ‘Asia Pacific Postal Union’ –

• Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU) is an intergovernmental organisation of 32-member countries of the Asian-Pacific region.
• APPU is the only Restricted Union of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in the region, which is a specialised agency of the United Nations.
• The goal of APPU is to extend, facilitate and improve postal relations between member countries and to promote cooperation in the field of postal services.
• As the regional centre for various UPU projects, APPU also takes the lead in ensuring that all technical and operational projects of the UPU are fulfilled in the region so that the region is integrated into the global postal network in the best possible way.
• Secretary General leads the activities of the Union and is also the Director of the Asian Pacific Postal College (APPC) which is the largest intergovernmental postal training institute in the region.

About the ‘Universal Postal Union’ –

• The Universal Postal Union (UPU) was established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874.
• It is second oldest international organisation worldwide after International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which was established in 1865.
• It is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system.
• The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB). It also oversees the Telematics and Express Mail Service (EMS) cooperatives.
• The UPU’s headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland.
• It has 192 member states. India joined the UPU on July 1, 1876.