The rivalry between the United States and China over who will dominate artificial intelligence has moved to an obscure battlefield: A Geneva-based United Nations agency most people have never heard of.

The Trump administration announced in June — a full year early — that it will push for a second term for American diplomat Doreen Bogdan-Martin as secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, the organization that sets voluntary international standards for technology ranging from radio frequencies and broadband to 6G mobile phones.

This is the earliest the State Department has ever made this kind of push at the ITU, an indication of the growing urgency of the U.S.-China technological rivalry. The Trump AI Action Plan, released earlier this month, specifically names the ITU as key to America’s global tech dominance. But some observers worry that Trump’s tough-minded foreign policy approach may already be hurting the U.S. in its quest to keep Bogdan-Martin in office.