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At the 38th meeting of the Council of Managers and Responsible Representatives of Railway Transport of the Organization for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) member states held in the capital of Turkmenistan on Thursday, the Ashgabat Declaration was adopted.

The meeting is attended by railway delegations from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Hungary, Vietnam, Georgia, China, Iran, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Czech Republic and Estonia.

The heads of the delegations noted the efforts of the leadership of Turkmenistan to comprehensively implement the transport and transit potential of the country, located at a strategically important and advantageous crossroads of international transport corridors.

During the conference, a wide range of issues in the field of international rail transport were discussed and the relevance of further development and diversification of international corridors, primarily in communication between Europe and Asia, the formation of a coordinated transport policy, and further improvement of international legal instruments were emphasized. They discussed both freight transportation and the resumption of passenger rail transportation between countries.

As OSJD Chairman Miroslav Antonovich noted in an interview with ORIENT, during the discussions different opinions were voiced on the issues included in the agenda of the meeting, but as a result of joint work, the participants managed to develop a common agreed vision for their solution.

In addition to reports and results for 2023, the participants reviewed the work plan for 2024-2025, the ways of development of the Organization, including in institutional terms, as the OSJD began negotiations with a number of countries that could join the ranks of its members, of which there are currently 30.

The forum delegates also adopted the Ashgabat Declaration of the XXXVIII Conference of Directors General (responsible representatives) of the railways of the OSJD member countries.

According to Miroslav Antonovich, the Ashgabat Declaration will give a new impetus to OSJD cooperation with Turkmenistan, which is located at the crossroads of international corridors and in the heart of the Silk Road. This includes the increasingly relevant Middle Corridor, the CASCA+ route, and the North-South direction, including the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway.

The Declaration, which is an annex to the Minutes of the meeting, emphasizes the importance of further implementation of the provisions of the UN General Assembly resolutions on transport initiated by Turkmenistan.

These are: resolution “The role of transport and transit corridors in ensuring international cooperation for sustainable development” dated December 19, 2014;

resolution “Towards ensuring comprehensive interaction between all modes of transport in order to promote the creation of sustainable multimodal transit corridors” of December 22, 2015;

resolution “Strengthening links between all modes of transport to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals” of December 20, 2017;

resolution “Strengthening links between all modes of transport to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals” of December 19, 2023.

The heads of the delegations emphasized the need to expand cooperation between OSJD member countries in solving problems related to economic, informational, scientific, technical and environmental aspects of railway transport, developing measures to increase the competitiveness of railway transport in relation to other modes of transport, cooperation in the field of railway operation and technical issues related to the further development of international rail transport, as well as cooperation with other international organizations involved in rail transport issues.

The delegations of the railways of the OSJD member countries especially emphasized the importance of high-level international events to promote the development of transport and the stability of transit corridors in order to ensure international cooperation, stability and sustainable development. As a result of the Conference, significant decisions were made in the field of freight and passenger transportation, infrastructure and rolling stock, coding and computer science, financial and settlement issues, mutual settlements for freight and passenger transportation, as well as in the field of vocational education and training.

The forum takes place from April 15 to 19 in the conference hall of the Yildiz Hotel.

During the days of this important meeting - from April 16 - Sustainable Development Week of the UN General Assembly is taking place in New York. Within its framework, a ministerial meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport was held, created on initiative of Turkmenistan, and also a high-level meeting on sustainable transport was held, where our country presented its vision of the issue.

ORIENT news

Photo: orient.tm