Supporting sustainable transport connectivity between Asia and Europe.

Strengthened and sustainable transport connectivity between Asia and Europe supports greater economic integration, more efficient resource allocation and the continued growth of mutually beneficial international trade on the Eurasian continent. 

In the past three decades, many initiatives have been launched to improve Asia-Europe transport connectivity. Such initiatives at the international level include a wide range of activities carried out by the United Nations regional commissions, notably the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and ESCAP; the Asia-Europe Meeting initiative, with biennial meetings of the ministers of transport; and 13 railway transport corridors, most of which link North-East and Central Asia with Eastern Europe, proposed by the Organization for Cooperation between Railways. Ad hoc platforms have also been created to address the issue of transport bottlenecks in several subregions relating in part to Asia-Europe connectivity, for example the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia and the Central Asia RegionalEconomic Cooperation Programme. Several initiatives at the national level are also aimed at binding the two regions together as one continent, including the Belt and Road Initiative of the Government of China, the Eurasia initiative of the Government of the Republic of Korea, the efforts of the Government of the Russian Federation to promote the Trans-Siberian Railway for cargo transport between Asia and Europe, and the Western Europe and Western China initiative proposed by the Government of Kazakhstan. The importance of improved connectivity between Asia and Europe for the accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda was recently emphasized at the 5th Asia-Europe Meeting Transport Ministers’ Meeting, held in December 2019.

The pandemic has demonstrated that Asia and Europe remain key trade partners and underscored a high demand for interregional trade and, therefore, transportation of goods between the regions. During the pandemic, transportation of containers by railway between Asia and Europe has been relatively stable and even shown some signs of growth. This demonstrates that further enhancing sustainable transport connectivity between Asia and Europe in the wake of the pandemic will be an important element in rebuilding a better-designed and crisis-resilient international trade and transport system covering the Eurasian continent. 

In December 2016, the Third Ministerial Conference on Transport adopted the Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Transport Connectivity inAsia and the Pacific, in which it agreed to work towards the establishment of an interregional coordination committee on transport between Asia and Europe in collaboration with ECE. In that context, the secretariat is implementing a project on connecting transport infrastructure networks in Asia and Europe in support of interregional sustainable transport connectivity, aimed at supporting the establishment of the above-mentioned interregional committee by identifying priority areas for interregional cooperation on the elimination of legal, technological and infrastructural bottlenecks and the integration of existing transport networks in Asia and Europe (see ESCAP/CTR/2020/1).

The results of the study carried out as part of the project offer an overview of the existing initiatives on transport connectivity between Asia and Europe, a summary of recommendations and suggestions regarding institutional mechanisms to further support their implementation, including an interregional coordination committee. The ad hoc Interregional Expert Group Meeting on Transport Connectivity between Asia and Europe, held in Bangkok in January 2019, confirmed the strong interest among participating countries to further enhance transport connectivity between Asia and Europe and the necessity of a continuing interregional dialogue between the member States of the two United Nations regional commissions on related matters. 

 At the same time, the practicality of establishing the interregional coordination committee is conditioned by the scope of the mandates of both regional commissions. While ESCAP is fully mandated to work towards the establishment of the coordination committee by the above-mentioned Ministerial Declaration and by Commission resolution 73/4, the mandate provided to the Inland Transport Committee of ECE at its eighty-first session, in February 2019, was limited to the request to the ECE secretariat to continue to seek cooperation from the ESCAP secretariat to co-organize consultations in Geneva in the most cost-effective manner between ECE and ESCAP member  States and open to all ECE and ESCAP member States on sustainable transport connectivity, present the results to the Inland Transport Committee at its eightysecond session and formulate proposals for future cooperation.

A consultation was subsequently jointly organized by the ECE and the ESCAP secretariats and held in Geneva on 30 October 2019, providing a platform for the general exchange of information on efforts to strengthen interregional sustainable transport connectivity in the context of intermodal transport and logistics, including infrastructure connectivity and operational connectivity, as well as safety, security and environmental concerns regarding integrated intermodal transport and logistics. Upon reporting on the outcome of the regional forum at its eighty-second session, in February 2020, the InlandTransport Committee did not take any decisions on extending the mandate of the ECE secretariat. 

In light of that fact, the Committee may wish to continue to periodically organize interregional forums on sustainable transport connectivity between Asia and Europe as an optimal modality, for the time being, for cooperation and the coordination of efforts, for the benefit of relevant policymakers and transport stakeholders in both regions.