On 2 July, Oliver Sellnick welcomed for the first time at UIC Paris HQ the chairwoman of the OSJD Commission for Freight Transport Mrs Aspayeva Zubaida.

Mr Sellnick took the opportunity at this first meeting to present Mrs Aspayeva Zubaida UIC’s Freight Forum activities and projects.

Furthermore, the issue of promoting rail traffic between Asia and Europe was addressed.

The ongoing UIC project ICOMOD related to intermodal traffic from Asia to Europe raised strong interest. The main aims of this project are to identify existing market data, key facilitators, and to highlight best practices promoting Eurasian land-bridges. Synergies between OSJD and UIC were also discussed. The Global Team of Experts (GTE) will invite Mrs Aspayeva Zubaida to its next meeting.

Additional work could potentially be carried out with OSJD to analyse the routes between Asia and Europe.

Finally, it was agreed that a second meeting would be scheduled for September in Warsaw.