Qinghai Province, China, recently submitted its application for NEAR membership to the Secretariat. The application will be formally voted on at the upcoming NEAR High Level Working Committee meeting in May and, if approved, it will bring the total number of NEAR members to 82. Qinghai Province is the 14th Chinese member region to apply for membership, following Liaoning Province in 2021 and Gansu Province in 2023.

Qinghai is a province in northwestern China. It is, named after Qinghai Lake, the largest inland water body in China, and is abbreviated as Qing. The provincial capital is Xining, and it is home to 55 ethnic groups and has  a total population of 5.95 million.  Geographically, it is located in the northeastern part of the Qingjiang Plateau, with an average elevation of more than 3,000 meters above sea level, with a high of 6,860 meters and a low of 1,650 meters.