Turkmenistan convened a meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport

On May 10, 2023, the Permanent Mission of Turkmenistan to the United Nations chaired the 3rd Meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport in a virtual format.

The meeting was attended by the Permanent Representatives to the UN of the member countries of the Group, the Executive Secretary of the International Center for Transport Diplomacy (ICTD) Mr. Igor Rounov, the Secretary General of the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable Low-Carbon Transport Ms. Maruxa Cardama, the President of the Global Supply Chain Classroom (GSCC) Network Mr. Chung Tam.

Permanent Representative of Turkmenistan Ambassador Aksoltan Ataeva informed on the results of work of the Group for the first half of 2023, and outlined the upcoming steps and a number of proposals for the development of multilateral cooperation at the UN on sustainable transport agenda.

In particular, the following was emphasized:

• Upcoming consideration by the UN General Assembly at the plenary session on May 16, 2023, of the draft resolution "World Sustainable Transport Day" submitted by Turkmenistan;
• Follow-up preparations for the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on sustainable transport in November 2023;
• Strengthening the consultative and information mechanism within the Group. In particular, Mr. Rounov presented a draft concept of the Advisory Council to the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport, the main role of which will be to prepare, at the request of the members of the Group, reviews and analytics on transport development and international cooperation in this field. In addition, plans were announced to further develop a current practice of circulating regular newsletters for members of the Group;
• The need to expand the membership of the Group and the scope of its activities. In this regard, the importance of the accession of new members to the Group, namely the Kingdom of Morocco and the Republic of Nicaragua, was especially noted.

During the meeting, the delegations supported the proposal to establish an Advisory Council and expressed strong support for Turkmenistan during the upcoming consideration of the UN GA draft resolution of the "World Transport Day" and in preparation for the high-level meeting of the General Assembly in November this year.

During the meeting delegations also underlined the need to further promote activities of the Group in order to regularly exchange views on ways to overcome challenges in transport and logistics, minimize regional and global barriers in this sector, and new initiatives of the Member States on transport development.

The next meeting of the Group is scheduled for December 2023.