The 5th meeting of the Ministers of the Member and Observer States of the Turkic Council in charge of Transport was convened on October 14, 2021 in Budapest, Hungary.
The meeting was hosted by H.E. László Palkovics, Minister of Innovation and Technology of Hungary and moderated by H.E. Baghdad Amreyev, Secretary General of the Turkic Council, and attended by H.E. Binali Yıldırım, the Elder of the Turkic Council from Turkey, H.E. Erkinbek Osoev, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Kyrgyz Republic, H.E. Adil Karaismailoğlu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Turkey, H.E. Rahman Hummatov, Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Ruslan Baymishev, Vice-Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, H.E. Abdusamat Muminov, Deputy Minister of Transport of the Republic of Uzbekistan and H.E. László Mosóczi, State Secretary for Transport Policy of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology of Hungary.
Welcoming the delegations to the Ministerial meeting, Hungarian Minister László Palkovics emphasized that Hungary has always nurtured deep ties with the Turkic world and cooperation with the Turkic Council Member States has resulted in mutual support during the coronavirus pandemic. Minister Palkovics informed the parties about the current efforts of the Hungarian Government to transform the country into a strategic transport hub of Europe, to build modern rail road infrastructure and ensure efficiency and transparency in the transport sector.
Turkic Council Elder Binali Yıldırım highlighted the significant economic potential of the Turkic States. Underlining significant steps taken by the member countries to improve the infrastructural capacity and transit potential of the Trans-Caspian East-West-Middle Corridor, Mr. Yildirim stressed the importance to make further efforts to decrease logistical costs and accelerate the speed of the transport and customs operations across the corridor.
Addressing the Ministerial meeting, Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev shared with the participants on the latest developments in enhancing transport and transit cooperation within the Turkic Council, including efforts on the application of digital tools. He also called the Ministers to take concrete steps for increasing the number of RoRo (roll on – roll off) and train-ferries while decreasing the prices of RoRo lines, liberalization of transport, lifting the fees of transport passes, removing the administrative barriers, facilitating transit procedures and enabling the regular shipments across the Caspian.
Secretary General Amreyev reiterated that the victory of Azerbaijan opened new avenues of regional cooperation, connectivity and formation of formidable corridors, including the Zangezur Corridor. Therefore, he called the private sector of the Member and Observer states to take advantage of these opportunities.
The Ministers held discussions on the measures to be taken for facilitating the transport and transit operations along the Trans-Caspian Corridor in the post-pandemic era, the “Road Demonstration Tour” planned to be conducted across the Trans-Caspian Corridor, exchanged views on the draft “Agreement on International Combined Freight Transport among the Member States of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States”, as well as agreed to stir up the digitalization of transport and transit procedures among the Member States with the implementation of eTIR, ePermit and eCMR applications.
The Parties also touched upon the ways on the qualitative enhancement of the Sister Ports process. During the meeting, Director of the Samsun Port made a presentation on the current state and future of cooperation among the Turkic Council Sister Ports and their contribution to the development of the Trans-Caspian Corridor.
At the end of the meeting, a signing ceremony was organized for the accession of the Mersin Port of Turkey and “Universal Logistics Services” (Tashkent), “Akhtachi” (Andijan) and “Termez Cargo Center” (Surkhandarya) of Uzbekistan to the MoU on Sister Port Relations and Cooperation Among the Ports of the Turkic Council Member States.
