Tbilisi hosted the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) of the Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia (TRACECA) program.

The 30th anniversary of the TRACECA program’s founding and the 25th anniversary of the signing of the “Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor” were both honoured during this year’s session (MLA).

Participants in the meeting talked about developing multimodal transport, streamlining border crossing procedures, expanding maritime transportation and other topics related to developing the TRACECA corridor.

TRACECA countries considered the results of the functioning of the TRACECA permit system for international road transport in 2021, the status of implementation by the MLA Parties of the IGC decisions, information on accession to international agreements, as well as the Report on the implementation of the Action Plan for 2018-2021 for implementation of the Strategy of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA for development of the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia for 2016-2026.

Turkmenistan’s readiness to join the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Transport Corridor’s main multilateral agreement (TRACECA) merited special consideration.

Georgia will take over as the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission’s Chair country for the following two years, beginning on February 11, 2023.

Levan Davitashvili, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development for Georgia, emphasised the significance of Georgia’s chairmanship for the country’s ability to better coordinate and communicate with its allies.

“When it comes to bridging Europe and Asia, Georgia has always taken the lead. Georgia, however, will not be able to connect Europe and Asia on its own; as a result, Georgia must work very closely with partner nations along the corridor, namely Azerbaijan, Central Asian nations, and then the European Union,” Davitashvili declared.

Official representatives of the governments of the MLA Parties, Permanent Representatives (National Secretaries) of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) of the IGC TRACECA in the states participants of the MLA, observers in the Intergovernmental Commission, representatives of international organizations, and the TRACECA partners attended the meeting.