On 19 and 20 November, the 59th Assembly of the Council for Rail Transport of CIS States was held in Chisinau, Moldova. On this occasion, UIC and its Director-General Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux were invited to participate in the work of the members and to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two associations, CRT-CIS and UIC.

Mr Loubinoux in his opening address thanked Moldovan Railways for their welcome and hospitality and Mr Peter Kucherenko, Chairman of the Directorate of the CRT for his invitation. He stressed that there were several things in common between our two associations: firstly that we are all railway professionals who are very involved and motivated by the development of railways internationally; second that we have a growing number of members in common and third that we also share the vision of the same chairman Mr Vladimir Yakunin, Chairman of CRT and Chairman of UIC.

Mr Yakunin explained the work and programme of UIC, and the opportunities for members of CRT-CIS to participate in a number of workshops. This is possible through the signing of the MoU and will be submitted at the forthcoming UIC General Assembly for approval. This MoU also paves the way for further collaboration on a number of technical projects for interoperability and the possibility as well through better and common understanding to have new members within UIC.

Obviously the fact that the Russian language can now be used in technical workshops thanks to RZD will be a real factor in bringing us closer. He underlined that through a series of MoUs on legal, administrative, technical, financial, political and geographical issues the scope of work for UIC spans many issues and with a global dimension. He was very happy to add the participation of CRT for CIS countries in this opening phase of collaboration.