A/HRC/7/38 page 9 33. By December 2007, OHCHR was also running nine regional human rights presences.5 This included a regional office for Central America, based in Panama and established early in 2007.6 In November 2007, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Government of Senegal for the establishment of a regional office for West Africa in Dakar. 34. It is expected that, in the course of 2008, three new regional offices will be established and operational - in Central, Asia (Bishkek), South-West Asia and North Africa - and a human rights training and documentation centre for South-West Asia and the Arab region.7 The setting up of such offices was foreseen in the Strategic Management Plan for 2006-2007 (except South-West Asia) but, as highlighted in my last report to the Human Rights Council, significant delays have been faced in this process. This was essentially due to the complexity of the required negotiations, including host country agreements and consultations regarding the selection of the seat. 35. I would also like to welcome two important achievements concerning dialogue and cooperation with countries where OHCHR does not have a country office: the conclusion of a framework agreement for cooperation with the Russian Federation; and the completion of several technical cooperation activities in China. 36. Thanks to its Peace Missions Support and Rapid Response Unit, established in 2006, the capacity of OHCHR to react promptly to critical human rights situations significantly increased in 2007, which allowed the taking of action and the provision of conceptual and operational support to a number of unforeseen human rights situations, including implementation of Council resolutions and decisions. 37. My Office was thus able to deploy missions and to mobilize surge capacity in support of OHCHR country or regional offices as well as United Nations country teams or peace operations in seven countries. For instance, early in 2007, in response to the declaration of a state of emergency in Guinea, OHCHR extended support to the United Nations country team and 5 Regional offices for Southern Africa (Pretoria); East Africa (Addis Ababa); South-East Asia (Bangkok); the Middle East (Beirut); the Pacific (Suva); Central America (Panama City); liaison office for Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago); regional representative for Central Asia (Bishkek); and the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa (Yaoundé). 6 It should be noted that, at the end of 2007, owing to budgetary constraints, OHCHR transferred from Santiago the mandate of the regional office for Latin America to Panama where, early in 2007, it had established a regional office for Central America. A liaison office has been maintained in Chile. 7 The establishment of the Qatar centre was requested by the General Assembly in its resolution 60/153, mandating the Centre to undertake training and documentation activities according to international standards and to support such efforts within the region by Governments, United Nations agencies and programmes, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.