The 72nd World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee meeting for South-East Asia will be held at regional headquarters in New Delhi, India this year. The meeting was to be held originally in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Ministry of Health informed that a special online session was held today to determine the location for the regional Committee meeting.

The Ministry further said that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) had proposed to hold the 72nd WHO Regional Committee meeting for South-East Asia back in 2016. This was during the 69th WHO Regional Committee meeting for South-East Asia.

However, as the United Nations Security Council has not given the approval to hold this meeting in North Korea, the location has now been moved to regional headquarters in New Delhi, India.

While the session to determine a location had been held today, the meeting was carried out virtually, via video conferencing. The Ministry of Health reported that this is the first time for such a session for the World Health Organization. As such, the Ministers for Health of several countries as well as Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia Region, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh is the Regional Director also reportedly joined the session. The Minister of Health, Abdulla Ameen represented Maldives during the video conference session today.

While the 72nd WHO South-East Asia Regional Committee meeting is fast approaching, it would have been difficult to make arrangements to hold the meeting at any other country on such short notice. As such, the final decision was taken to hold the meeting at the WHO regional headquarters in India. The 72nd World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee meeting for South-East Asia will be held from 2 - 6 September 2019.