Diaz is a former Presidential candidate for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and had chaired the seventh session of the Conference of Parties Bureau, running from 2020 to 2021.

COP8 held the final day of its meeting at UNESCO's headquarters in the French capital, and as per the Russian state news agency TASS, Diaz was re-elected as chair.

Britain's Hitesh Patel was also elected for another term in his position as rapporteur.

China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Senegal were re-elected to vice-chair positions on the COP8 Bureau, with Ukraine also securing a position on the organisation, with terms running until 2023.

Russia will be represented by its Minister of Sport Oleg Matytsin on the COP8 Bureau, and he vowed to continue working through the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport to combat doping.

"Russia adheres to the principles of clean and fair sport, zero tolerance for doping," Matytsin said.

"Our country consistently and systematically advocates the full-scale use of the potential of the UNESCO Convention in the interests of the participating states.

"In the context of a pandemic in Moscow, for the first time, face-to-face meetings of the Presidium and the Committee for the Approval of Projects of the UNESCO Foundation for the Elimination of Doping in Sports, where our country is traditionally the largest donor, took place in Moscow.

"For the first time, the Russian clothing company Forward was announced as a partner of the Fund.

"We hope that further cooperation within the framework of the work of the Convention will serve to improve activities to combat the use of doping in sport around the world."

At the meeting in Paris yesterday, Russia was found to be "100 per cent compliant" in its implementation of the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, while on Tuesday (October 26), Matytsin met with WADA President Witold Bańka.

The reinstatement process for the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was one of the items discussed.

Russia's name, flag and anthem have been banned from World Championship and Olympic events since RUSADA was declared non-compliant by WADA in December 2019 after the country was found to have manipulated data at the Moscow Laboratory.

It had been reinstated in 2018 after an initial suspension in 2015.

The sanctions were reduced from four to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in December 2020, but they are set to still be in place at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.