RAPAPORT… The Kimberley Process (KP) said the European Union (EU) will
be its chair in 2018, meaning the bloc will serve as vice-chair next year.
The EU, which last chaired the KP in 2007, will take over
from Australia in January 2018, the year in which India will serve as vice
chair and then as chair in 2019 – that’s in line with a joint
bid put forward at the KP intersessional meeting in May. The KP confirmed
the appointments in a communiqué released at the end of last week’s plenary in
Dubai.
The EU and Indian chairpersons will be announced
at a later stage. In 2017, the KP will be chaired by Robert Owen-Jones, who
currently serves as assistant secretary of the Australian competitiveness
branch in the nation’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (pictured, left, with current KP chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem and ALROSA vice-president Andrey Polyakov).