The Joint Group of Experts Meeting co-organized as a result of a year-long cooperation between the Expert Group of the UNECE-EATL (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe-Eurasian Transport Links) and the Turkic Council was held on 20-21 October 2015 in Istanbul.

At the opening of the meeting, Deputy Secretary General of the Turkic Council, Abzal Saparbekuly, made a comparative evaluation of transport options in growing East-West trade by highlighting the relative advantages and superiority of Trans-Caspian transport corridor, passing through the Member States of the Turkic Council.

Deputy Secretary General Saparbekuly stated that with its distance advantage, the Trans-Caspian corridor has the potential to reduce delivery times to 13-14 days in the East-West direction and underlined that in order to benefit from this potential it is essential to overcome the existing operational and non-tariff barriers with the common effort of the member states. Deputy Secretary General also gave information about the projects carried out by the Turkic Council in order to render Trans-Caspian transport corridor a viable option by highlighting the importance of the "International Combined Freight Transport Agreement" which is currently considered by the member states and the " Agreement on the Establishment of the Coordination Committee on the Development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR)" which is already operational. In this context, Deputy Secretary General Saparbekuly noted that the demonstration run of the block train in Shihezi-Dostuk-Aktau-Baku route conducted under the TITR Agreement has a historical importance in turning the Trans-Caspian transport corridor as an alternative option.

Project Director Ali Çiviler also provided information on the ongoing transport projects of the Turkic Council.

Following that the Secretary of UNECE-EATL, Miroslav Jovanovic, gave information regarding the agenda of the meeting.

During the two-day meeting, the participants exchanged information on the operation durations, tariffs, needs of the freight forwarders on the existing transport corridors in Eurasian region, the productivity and efficiency of the lines as well as the latest developments of the priority projects of the participating countries in the field of transport.