The ITU is an agency of the United Nations. Which is an organization created by treaty, of which various nations' governments are members.
Actually, the ITU is more than twice as old as the UN, and merged with the UN in 1947. As noted in a previous message, the ITU has both government and non-government members, more of the later than the former, which arguably makes it a multi-stakeholder entity. I entirely believe that NTIA doesn't want the ITU involved with ICANN, but the ITU has made it abundantly clear over the years that it wants a seat at the table, preferably its own table. I listened to the ICANN press conference this morning, the gist of which was don't worry, nothing will change, but once the NTIA opens up the ICANN management contract (or whatever it's called these days) to other parties, keeping the ITU out will be a challenge. R's, John