On 15 December 2020, a working meeting of the Chairman of the OSJD Committee Miroslaw Antonowicz and the Secretary General of OTIF Wolfgang Küpper took place in a videoconferencing format. The meeting was also attended by Lawyer of the OSJD Committee Slawomir Car and Head of Legal Department of OTIF Aleksandr Kuzmenko.

The OTIF Secretary General congratulated Mr. Miroslaw Antonowicz on his appointment to the post of Chairman of the Committee of the Organisation for Cooperation between Railways and expressed his gratitude for the readiness for further cooperation and collaboration towards the development of international railway transport.

The Chairman of the OSJD Committee and the Secretary General of OTIF agreed on further cooperation development and continuation of joint work between the two organisations, within the framework of which it was proposed to start the formation of a joint working group, defining the first meeting tentatively at the end of February – beginning of March 2021.

The meeting participants considered it expedient to update the document “Joint Viewpoint” of 2003, as well as to pay special attention to the issues related to cooperation with the UN Economic Commission for Europe.

The OTIF Secretary General invited the Chairman of the OSJD Committee and expressed his hope for his presence at the next OTIF General Assembly, which is scheduled for 28-29 September 2021 at the OTIF headquarters in Bern (Switzerland). The Chairman of the OSJD Committee thanked for the invitation and expressed his desire for his personal participation, provided that the epidemiological situation in the world is improved.

The OSJD Committee Chairman also expressed his hope that in 2021 the events scheduled according to the OSJD work plan will be held in an ‘intramural’ format, in particular the meetings of the OSJD governing bodies in Russia and in the Republic of Korea, during which the 65th anniversary of OSJD is planned to be also celebrated, having invited the OTIF Secretary General to participate in them.

Both parties have expressed their satisfaction with the outcomes of the meeting held.