Turkmenistan holds a meeting of the Group of Friends on Sustainable Transport: What’s on the agenda?
The 4th meeting of the Group of Friends on Sustainable Transport was held on December 14 under the chairmanship of Turkmenistan in a virtual format. It was attended by the heads and representatives of the diplomatic missions to the UN of the Group’s member countries.
Permanent missions from among the co-authors of the UN General Assembly resolutions on transport, Head of the Sustainable Development Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) Zhu Juwang, Executive Secretary of the International Center for Transport Diplomacy (ICTD) Igor Runov, members of the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable Low-Carbon Transport, President of the International Educational and Global Supply Chain Research Network (GSCC) Chung Tam, scientific experts. This is reported on the page of the Permanent Mission of Turkmenistan to the United Nations.
At the meeting, applications for membership in the Group submitted by Nicaragua, Laos and Morocco were approved, proposals and recommendations for the implementation of the UN General Assembly resolution “Strengthening links between all modes of transport to achieve Sustainable Development Goals” were considered.
The work on the formation of the substantive part of the UN Decade of Sustainable Transport for 2026-2035, preparation for the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on Multilateral Transport Cooperation scheduled for April 17, 2024 within the framework of Sustainable Transport Week were discussed.
The agenda of the meeting also included the issues of the next UN Global Conference on Sustainable Transport and events dedicated to World Sustainable Transport Day next year. In particular, the organization of the celebration of this day at the international level in Turkmenistan on November 26, 2024 was considered.
The importance of the first expert meeting on sustainable transport, organized by UN DESA in November in Geneva,was noted.It was emphasized that such meetings would be continued in order to implement the transport segment of the 2030 Agenda and the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly.
Also, an Advisory Council is being formed on the platform of the Friends of Sustainable Transport Group, the creation of which was supported by the members of the Group during the 3 rd meeting in May this year. The participants were presented with an initial list of international and regional organizations, transport and logistics companies as candidates for founding members of the Council.
The main role of the Advisory Council will be to prepare, at the request of the members of the Group, supporting information and analytical materials on transport development and international cooperation in this area, involving multilateral partnerships, the business community, scientific and academic circles, public organizations in the implementation of the international agenda in the field of sustainable transport, establishing contacts and effective exchange between them information.
In addition, a proposal to establish the World Academy of Transport Diplomacy (WTDA) was considered. The proposal was supported by the members of the Group and plans were announced for the pilot launch of this initiative in February- April 2024 in the form of lectures on multilateral transport diplomacy in a hybrid format.
Following the meeting, it was proposed to organize the next, 5 th meeting of the Group of Friends at the ministerial level in April next year on the eve of the High- level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Multilateral Transport Cooperation, which is scheduled for April 17, 2024.
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