Republic of Azerbaijan,

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,

Republic of Belarus,

Republic of Bulgaria,

Hungary,

Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

Georgia,

Republic of Kazakhstan

People’s Republic of China,

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

Republic of Latvia,

Republic of Lithuania,

Republic of Moldova,

Mongolia,

Republic of Poland,

Russian Federation,

Romania

Slovak Republic,

Republic of Uzbekistan

Ukraine,

Czech Republic,

Republic of Estonia.

The session was attended by the representatives from the Republic of Korea, the European Union (EU), the Eurasian Economic Commission (EaEC) and OSJD Committee.

The session was chaired by Mr. Sergey Aristov, State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, whereas on 28 March 2018 the functions of the Session Chairman were fulfilled by Mr. Liu Keqiang, Deputy Administrator of National Railway Administration of the People’s Republic of China.

The functions of the Session Secretary were fulfilled by Mr. Tadeusz Szozda, Chairman of OSJD Committee.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Rules of Procedure for International Conference for the adoption of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic, the Credentials Committee was set up to examine the credentials, which was composed of representatives from the delegation

The Chairman of the Credentials Committee Mr. Levan Tsurtsumia reported on the credentials received in accordance with Article 2 of the Rules of Procedure for the International Conference for the adoption of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic from 22 delegations of the OSJD Member States, proceeding from which, in accordance with Article 11 of the Rules, the Chairman of the Conference ascertained its validity.

The Session participants took note that representatives of the European Union had submitted credentials from the President of the European Commission.

To prepare the protocol of Session IV, the Conference set up an editorial group consisting of the delegates from Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, People's Republic of China, Republic of Latvia and Russian Federation.

The participants in Session 4 of the Conference were addressed by the representative of the Republic of Korea, who in his speech thanked for the invitation and confirmed the interest in the OSJD membership.

Within the framework of the agenda, the text of the draft Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic was continued to be considered, resulting in the approval and adoption, after lengthy discussions, of the texts of Articles 28-38 of the draft Convention.

In cases where the proposals to amend and/or modify the text of the Convention did not find the required number of votes, the text of the Convention referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 1 “Scope” of the Rules was adopted.

Particular attention during the discussion was attracted by clause 4 of Article 28 “Secretary of the Committee”, clause 1 of Article 29 “Meetings of the Committee”, Article 30 “Distribution of Posts in the Committee”, clause 3 of Article 31 “General Provisions concerning Commissions”, clause 2 of Article 32 "Meetings of the Commissions ", Clause 2 of Article 33 “General provisions concerning the Audit Commission”, clause 2 of Article 34 “Activities of the Auditing Commission”, clause 4 of Article 35 “General provisions concerning voting”, clause 1 of Article 36 “Voting at sessions” and others.

For considering and working with the controversial articles of the draft Convention, the Session has taken a decision to establish a Working Group.

The Conference decided to hold its 5^th Session from 19 to 23 November 2018 in Warsaw (Republic of Poland) and adopted a provisional agenda, including the following issues:

- adoption of the agenda for Session 5;

- election of Deputy Chairman/Chairperson of the Conference from the Republic of Poland;

- discussion of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic;

- Organisation of work of the Working Group established by Session IV of the Conference;

- date and agenda of session VI of the Conference.

The session approved the preliminary date for the session VI of the Conference, having set it for 25-29 March 2019.