Seventeenth IGC Meeting (2025). TRACECA ORG

Seventeenth Annual IGC Meeting, Tehran, 2025

The Islamic Republic of Iran has become the Chairman Party of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA

The Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA was held on 26 February 2025 in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, where the mandate of the Chairmanship of the IGC TRACECA was transferred from Georgia to the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI).

The opening ceremony of the Meeting was chaired by H.E. Ms. Farzaneh Sadegh, Minister of Roads and Urban Development of IRI. In her welcoming speech she noted the importance of this Meeting for further strengthening of cooperation and development of the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia. She expressed confidence that the discussions and outcomes of the meeting would contribute to the expansion of transport corridors, deepen economic integration and build a more interconnected and prosperous future for the peoples of the participating countries.

The transfer of the Chairmanship was carried out by handing over the TRACECA Book containing the main document - the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor (MLA) by the Head of Delegation of Georgia to the IGC Chairman, Ms. Farzaneh Sadegh.

The Meeting was attended by the official delegations of the MLA TRACECA member countries, the Permanent Representatives (National Secretaries) of the Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA, observers in the IGC, as well as representatives of international organisations.

Within the framework of the Meeting, the Heads of delegations of the 12 MLA member countries made statements and presented the reports on the work done during the Chairmanship of Georgia. The floor was also given to the representatives of the observer country - the Hellenic Republic, and international organisations, including ECO, BSEC, IRU, OSJD, ECAC and TITR.

Mr. Assavbayev A.A., Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA, made a report on the work done by the Permanent Secretariat during the Chairmanship of Georgia since the last IGC Meeting.

The Agenda of the Meeting included priority issues related to the development of multimodal transport, simplification of border crossing procedures, digitalisation, as well as other issues aimed at further development of the TRACECA corridor.

The Meeting of the IGC TRACECA heard the Report and positively assessed the work done by the MLA Parties on the Action Plan for 2022-2026 for implementation of the Strategy of the IGC TRACECA for development of the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia for 2016-2026, the results of the TRACECA Permits System for international road transport in 2022 and 2023, as well as took note of the intention of the Kyrgyz Republic to accede to the TRACECA Permits System and called upon the other MLA Parties to accede to it.

Among the approved TRACECA documents it is worth mentioning the Rules of Operation of the TRACECA Fund, the Review on the use of semi-trailers as separate transport units in multimodal transport, the Review of bonded warehouses/zones, the Action Plan for the transition to the application of electronic permit forms (bilateral) between the MLA Parties. In addition, the proposal to adopt the draft Decision “On making amendments to the Technical Document “TRACECA Multilateral Permit” User Guide” was approved.

In addition, the issues of establishing the TRACECA Business Council, making amendments to some TRACECA documents and improving TRACECA activity in general were discussed.

The TRACECA countries also discussed the corresponding reports and recommended to continue further work on the evaluation of checkpoints and annual collection of statistical data in order to inform the MLA Parties.

Following the consideration of the appeal, the IGC made a decision to extend the observer status of the Hellenic Republic in the IGC.

Then, the floor was given to the Head of Delegation from the Republic of Kazakhstan, who expressed readiness to hold the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the IGC TRACECA in the Republic of Kazakhstan in February 2026. The exact date will be determined by the Kazakhstan Party additionally and communicated to the MLA Parties in advance.

In conclusion, the Final Resolutions were signed, which reflected the results of the work done and formulated recommendations for further steps.

For reference:

- The Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) operates in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the IGC. The decisions and recommendations adopted by the IGC determine the activities of the Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA, located in Baku.

- TRACECA includes the transport system of 14 member countries united by the idea of developing the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia.

- The Permanent Secretariat has its Permanent Representations in each of the MLA TRACECA member countries.