The Joint Meeting, which was held from 29 November through 2 December 2022 in the OSJD Committee premises with the use of the videoconferencing mode, was attended by the Plenipotentiary Representatives of the Members of the OSJD Ministerial Conference and the Conference of General Directors (Authorised Representatives) of the OSJD Railways from the following countries: 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, Republic of Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Latvia, Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, Republic of Poland, Russian Federation, Romania, Slovak Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Republic of Estonia.

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the OSJD affiliated enterprises: Rail Cargo Hungaria Co. (Hungary), South-west Jiaotong University (China), Institute of Railway Transport (Poland), Far-East Shipping Company PJSC (FESCO PJSC) (Russia), Russian Post JSC (Russia), TransContainer PJSC (Russia), METRANS Group LLC (Slovakia), PLASKE JSC (Ukraine), as well as members and employees of the OSJD Committee.

The meeting was opened and chaired by OSJD Committee Chairman Mirosław Antonowicz, who welcomed the delegations and thanked them for attending the meeting.

The meeting discussed the materials prepared by the OSJD working bodies, as well as the OSJD Committee, which were sent by the OSJD Committee to the executive authorities in charge of railway transport and the OSJD railways.

As part of the agenda, the Work Plans of the OSJD working bodies for 2023 and the Work Schedule of OSJD Events for 2023 were considered and approved.

It was agreed to hold in 2023 all meetings in the OSJD Committee premises, as a rule, in an intramural format (in person). If individual delegations of OSJD members are not able to attend a meeting in person due to an objective cause, in exceptional cases, the OSJD Committee will ensure the possibility of their connection using a videoconferencing mode (VCM). If individual meetings cannot be held in an intramural format, they will be held in the videoconferencing mode.

The meeting participants expressed their gratitude to the officials of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Korea for the proposal to organise anniversary session L (50) of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in their country and for having invited them.

The head of delegation of the Republic of Korea from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stated that the Republic of Korea, being the organiser of session L of the OSJD Ministerial Conference, is making every possible effort to successfully hold the session next June.

In this regard, the Delegation of the Republic of Korea has invited the OSJD member countries to assist and support in holding the anniversary session of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in an intramural format in the Republic of Korea.

During the consideration of the Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Transport Policy and Development Strategy, the delegation of the Russian Federation took the floor with a presentation on the subject “Coordination of the the OSJD railway transport corridors (RTC) management”, in which it was proposed, taking into account the OSJD competencies and the materials developed during 2022 within the framework of consultative meetings of the countries – participants in the OSJD RTC No. 1, to act as an “umbrella structure” for the OSJD to monitor the functioning of each OSJD corridor. At the same time, monitoring can be carried out on the following aspects directly interrelated with the OSJD activities:

- facilitation of border crossing procedures;

- current status, bottlenecks and plans for the development of transport infrastructure;

- use of rolling stock;

- tariff policy;

- harmonisation of legal regulation;

- freight transportation, including container services.

The need to establish a Working Group for managing the OSJD RTC No. 1 was noted, as well as the importance of coordination and consultations between OSJD and the UNECE Inland Transport Committee in the field of managing the international transport corridors (ITC).