The first edition of the Children of Asia Games ran in 1996, and an inaugural Winter edition was held in 2019.

Maksimov identified that there is "no one single unified approach in the development of children and youth sport", and a tendency in some countries for it to be "put aside" at the expense of elite sport.

He underlined the value of the Games to the athletes taking part, with the multi-sport event open to competitors aged 16 and under from across Asia.

"For 25 years the Games have proved that they are quite necessary and useful because for some competitors it is their first international sport event, and for most of them it is their first multi-sport event," Maksimov told insidethegames.

"We give an opportunity for young athletes because our multi-sport events are at maximum like a true Olympic Games, so they are getting used to the Olympic spirit to participate in the real Olympic Games after that.

"Besides sports, we pay a lot of attention to the cultural part of our events, because during these events we organise cultural programmes and events for young athletes to promote cross-cultural communication between the younger generation of different countries.

"We also target conducting and preparing educational projects."

For the CAGIC, the Games made a welcome return earlier this year in the Russian city of Vladivostok - the first time the event had been held since Yakutsk 2016.

After the disruption to children and youth sport caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Maksimov was impressed by the level of competition.

"In 2020 the entire world faced this problem of the coronavirus," he said.

"It was very important for us to organise these Games this year, and we saw that everyone are missing big events.

"To organise and conduct a one-sport competition is one thing, but organising multi-sport events is a different thing, so we saw and we witnessed that everyone was missing big projects, and athletes, referees and organisers were very happy to organise these Games.

"The winners are children.

"The winners are the athletes, and the point is we did organise these Games with very good results shown by the athletes."

CAGIC is based in Yakutsk and Russia has been a regular host of its events.

Next year's Winter Children of Asia Games are due to be held in the Kuzbass region, despite the International Olympic Committee urging event organisers to move competitions away from the country due to the invasion of Ukraine.

While the war in Ukraine has led to Russia and its ally Belarus being largely frozen out of international sport, Maksimov claimed that athletes competing in the Games should not be impacted.

"It was quite a big challenge while organising these Games," he said.

"For known reasons we don't make communication with National Olympic Committees, but according to the consumption of the Games, the delegating site can be the Ministry of Sport or any other authorised body that is responsible for the development of children and youth sport.

"We are operating with this site, and those 13 countries that participated in the seventh Children of Asia Games showed that there is an interest in developing children and youth sport, and those countries showed that they have intention to develop children and youth sports.

"If before we used to say sport is apart from politics, at least now children and athletes are apart from politics.

"Now it is just an inter-state issue."

Maksimov was in attendance at the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) General Assembly in Phnom Penh, and said that the organisation had the "full support in the sphere of the development of children and youth sport" from the continental body.

He described the General Assembly as the "biggest communication platform for us", and urged more countries to take part in the CAGIC's events.

"Since there are many lovers of sports, professionals and decision-makers in the sphere of sports among the leaders, I would like to wish that more attention should be paid to the development of children and youth sport," Maksimov said.

"I would like to invite more participants to join our educational projects, so I wish the geography enlarges and I also wish that the sports competition becomes high."