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Vice-President Siim Kallas, currently visiting Moscow, has welcomed the progress made with Russia on cooperation in the fields of aviation, shipping, rail, road safety and transport security. There was also progress in agreeing on a new framework to make EU–Russia transport dialogue more efficient. To that end, a concrete mandate will be given to existing working groups, particularly in view of their contribution to the Partnership for Modernisation.
Vice-President Siim Kallas said: "We made good progress on strengthening and organising cooperation in practically all modes of transport, to secure not only business routes for goods to and from Russia, but also to ensure an efficient continental alternative for transporting goods to and from China. As the world becomes increasingly global, especially in transport, economic isolation is costly".
In 2005, the European Union and Russia signed terms of reference to enhance the EU–Russia dialogue in the field of transport and infrastructure. During the EU–Russia summit in June 2010, there was a joint statement on the Partnership for Modernisation. Vice-President Siim Kallas and Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin have agreed the following:
- to work jointly on aviation issues, in view of holding an EU–Russia aviation summit. The preparation of the summit should focus on the development of a closer relationship on safety, security, air traffic management and on regulatory matters, taking due account of the interests of the European and Russian aviation industries. Both parties acknowledge that the strategic aim should be the conclusion of a comprehensive air services agreement between the EU and Russia;
- to coordinate respective mobility plans to minimize traffic disruption in case of natural disasters, such as the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland;
- to strengthen cooperation in order to develop a joint approach to maritime and inland navigation vessel monitoring (Safeseanet/RIS/MoRe) and in the area of port state control;
- to explore, in the rail sector, the modalities for cooperation on regulatory and interoperability issues with a special attention paid to high-speed trains and in view of the development of additional rail freight routes from China to Europe;
- to strengthen cooperation and the exchange of best practices in the field of road safety and traffic management on the basis of intelligent transport systems;
- to develop a joint approach to transport security, aiming at the identification of measures to be taken for improving cooperation in this field.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
