The joint meeting of Plenipotentiary Representatives of Members of the OSJD Ministerial Conference and the Conference of General Directors (Authorised Representatives) of OSJD Railways was held on 5-8 December 2023 at the OSJD Committee (Warsaw) with the participation of Plenipotentiary Representatives of Members of the OSJD Ministerial Conference and/or Plenipotentiary Representatives of members of the Conference of General Directors (Authorised Representatives) of OSJD Railways from the 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 Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People’s Democratic 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 and Republic of Estonia.

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of OSJD affiliated enterprises as follows: Gargždų Geležinkelis JSC (Republic of Lithuania), Railway Research Institute (Republic of Poland), “Far Eastern Shipping Company” PJSC (FESCO PJSC) (Russian Federation), Russian Post JSC (Russian Federation), PLASKE JSC (Ukraine), “United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Railway Alliance” JSC (“UTLC ERA” JSC); the invited International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation (CCTT), as well as members and staff of the OSJD Committee.

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

The meeting discussed the materials generated 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 2024 and the Calendar of OSJD Events for 2024 were reviewed and approved.

The meeting participants agreed to hold in 2024, as a rule, meetings at the OSJD Committee in person (intramurally).

If individual delegations of OSJD members are not able to participate in person for some objective reasons, in exceptional cases, in relation to the meetings held at the OSJD Committee, the OSJD Committee provides the possibility of connecting them using the video conferencing mode (VCM), taking into account the decisions taken by the governing bodies of the OSJD regarding the procedure for holding the meetings and signing the protocols/minutes.

If individual meetings cannot be held in person, they will be held using the videoconferencing format. This decision is considered to fulfill the requirement to agree on this format for holding meetings, provided for by the regulations of the OSJD working bodies.

The meeting proposed to include in the preliminary agenda of the meetings of the OSJD governing bodies in 2024 the issue of the feasibility of elaborating an OSJD development strategy, which was noted by the Chairman of the OSJD Committee Mirosław Antonowicz in his article “Strategic Directions in the OSJD Activities and Development”, published in the “OSJD Bulletin” issue No. 4-5/2023. In this regard, the meeting requested the OSJD Committee to prepare relevant draft decisions for consideration by CGD meeting XXXVIII (15-19 April 2024, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) and session LI of the OSJD Ministerial Conference.

The meeting took note of the information from the Chairperson of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law on the results of work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the issue of railway and waterway traffic and expressed gratitude to the leading duty holder – the SMGS participant from the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as members of the Ad Hoc Working Group from the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Poland, Russian Federation, Ukraine and OSJD affiliated enterprise – PLASKE JSC for the comprehensive work done in terms of preparing and developing a draft of comprehensive changes and amendments to the SMGS Agreement and SI to SMGS related to the transportation under one consignment note, subject to shipment along several railway sections connected water areas.

The meeting decided to terminate the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the issue of railway and waterway traffic of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law starting from 31 December 2023.

In accordance with the decision of session L of the OSJD Ministerial Conference (13-16 June 2023, Busan, Republic of Korea), the meeting took into account the information of the Chairperson of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law on the results of the extraordinary meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the development of technical regulations for stowing andsecuring of goods (4 October 2023) in part of determination the leading duty holder for the development of new provisions of Annex 3 to SMGS using the “Methodology for the preparation and development of subjects with special financing”. Taking into account that the participants of the above-mentioned AWG meeting did not come to a consensus on determining the duty holder within this subject, it was decided that it was inappropriate to develop new provisions of Annex 3 to SMGS in 2024 using the “Methodology for the preparation and development of subjects with special financing”.

Due to the suspension of cooperation between the UIC and OSJD in 2022, joint subjects were excluded from the Plan of OSJD working bodies for 2024 of the OSJD Commission on Infrastructure and Rolling Stock, PWG CI and PRGF, and in the event of the resumption of cooperation, the work will be continued.

The meeting participants expressed gratitude to the “Turkmendemiryollary” Agency of the Transport and Communications Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan for having agreed to organise meeting XXXVIII of the Conference of General Directors (Authorised Representatives) of OSJD Railways from 15 till 19 April 2024.

The Hungarian delegation informed the meeting participants about the impossibility of holding session LI of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in Hungary in person, but only in the videoconferencing format. The meeting took this information into account and considered it impossible to hold the OSJD Ministerial Conference session of in a videoconferencing format outside the OSJD Committee, in connection with which the meeting considered it appropriate to request the OSJD Committee to conduct a survey among the OSJD Ministerial Conference members regarding the organisation of session LI of the OSJD Ministerial Conference in their countries in 2024, and inform the OSJD Ministerial Conference members of the about results for final approval.

Considering that, in accordance with the approved Work Plan of the OSJD working bodies for 2024, some meetings related to the work progress within the OSJD framework will be held in October-November, the meeting gave the OSJD Committee its consent to send the documents regarding the Work Plan of the OSJD working bodies for 2025 within a week after the final meetings of the OSJD working bodies.