Turkmenistan – a member of the Inland Transport Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

The 80th session of the Inland Transport Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, held in Geneva, the Swiss Confederation on February 22, took the decision on admitting Turkmenistan to the Committee office. 

Turkmenistan’s affiliation with this UN authoritative structure on the first year of adoption of the Resolution on Strengthening the links between all modes of transport to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the UN General Assembly on December 20, 2017, vividly testifies to the high confidence of the international community in the our country’s initiatives in the sphere of transport diplomacy put forward by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. It is symbolic that Turkmenistan has become the member of the UNECE Inland Transport Committee (ITC) in the year of 2018, which is held in our country under the motto “Turkmenistan is the heart of the Great Silk Road”. 

The Inland Transport Committee (ITC) is the highest policy-making body of the UNECE in the field of motor, railway, and water transport, as well as joint traffic on the European continent. 

In the course of the last 70 years, together with its subsidiary bodies, the ITC has provided a pan-European intergovernmental forum, where UNECE member countries come together to forge tools for economic cooperation and negotiate and adopt international legal instruments on inland transport. These legal instruments are considered indispensable for developing efficient, harmonized and integrated, safe and sustainable pan-European transport systems. 

The ITC Bureau consists of 14 members, who are elected for the two-year term, of them the Chairman of the Bureau and four Vice-Chairmen are elected. 

Thus, the inclusion of Turkmenistan into this authoritative UN structure was another example of the world community’s recognition the fact that, reviving the Great Silk Road in modern conditions, our country actively develops the transport and logistics system that provides the platform for the international political, economic and humanitarian dialogue.