On April 26, 2013, the first Chengdu Europe high-speed railway set off from Qingbaijiang in Chengdu, heading west towards Łó d ź, Poland. Sichuan had its first direct land route to Europe. Thirteen years later, the collaborative story that grew out of this channel was moved to a conference table in Beijing.

On September 22-23, 2026, the Global Sustainable Transport Summit Forum (2026) will be held in Beijing, with a focus on people enjoying transportation and goods flowing smoothly. Nearly 800 Chinese and foreign guests will attend. During the forum, the China Central and Eastern European Countries Logistics Cooperation Conference, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Transport and the People's Government of Sichuan Province, was held. Vice Minister of Transport Li Xinghu and Vice Governor of Sichuan Province Ma Zhengyong attended the meeting and delivered speeches. More than 100 people, including officials from relevant provincial and municipal transportation and port logistics departments, officials from foreign ministries and consulates in China, guests from international organizations, entrepreneurs, and experts and scholars, attended the meeting.

Steel camel team accelerates speed

The China Europe freight train is the most solid foundation of this cooperation. In the first half of 2026, a total of 11178 China Europe freight trains will be operated nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 20%; Over the past decade, the cumulative operating volume has exceeded 130000 trains, reaching 236 cities in 26 European countries. The three major channels of West, Central, and East are working together, with traffic volumes exceeding 5000, 2500, and 3600 trains respectively. The traffic volume of the Central Channel has exceeded 3500 trains within the year. The entire timetable has been expanded synchronously, covering 17 routes including Xi'an to Duisburg and Chengdu to Lodz, with nearly 100 trips per month and over 1000 trains per year. As one of the host cities, Sichuan's performance is equally impressive: the China Europe freight train (Chengdu Chongqing) will exceed 5000 trains in 2025, ranking first in the country for five consecutive years, and its overseas stations have connected 135 cities.

Highway filling relay

Outside of railways, highways are becoming another leg. Habib Turki, Secretary General of the International Road Transport Union, shared the practices of international road transport facilitation and TIR cross-border road transport in his keynote speech. The TIR system is established based on the United Nations Convention on International Road Transport and has 78 contracting states. Its core is the recognition of one vehicle to the end and multiple countries. Vehicles do not change or flip between contracting states throughout the entire process, and are exempt from unpacking inspections, significantly reducing port stay time and enterprise transportation costs. In the past two years, new formats such as TIR+bonded and TIR+cross-border e-commerce have gradually landed, complementing the China Europe freight trains and providing more flexible options for high value-added goods to go abroad.

Channel grows out of industry

The value of channels ultimately lies in trade and industry. Since the establishment of the cooperation mechanism between China and Central and Eastern European countries, the transportation and logistics cooperation between the two sides has continued to deepen, and trade has risen synchronously. In 2025, China's imports and exports to Central and Eastern European countries reached 1.09 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.5%, a continuous growth for 10 years and reaching a new historical high; In the first quarter of 2026, imports and exports reached 276.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.3%. Central and Eastern Europe is located at the hub connecting the Eurasian continent, relying on multi-channel coordination of highways, railways, sea transportation, and aviation to further shorten transportation time and reduce logistics costs, providing stable support for two-way trade and industrial cooperation.

During the keynote speech, five Chinese and foreign guests, including Chen Guoyou, Special Representative for China Central and Eastern European Countries Cooperation Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shared on topics such as international road transport facilitation, TIR cross-border road transport, high-quality development of China Europe freight trains, and digitalization of international logistics supply chains. During the thematic discussion session, representatives from participating government departments, international organizations, enterprises, and research institutions had in-depth exchanges on China Central and Eastern Europe's win-win cooperation in goods and trade. All parties stated that they will use logistics channels as the driving force and key projects as the starting point to promote the coordinated development of channels, trade, and industries, and serve the economic and trade growth between China and Central and Eastern Europe.

At the conference, multiple logistics cooperation projects between China and Central and Eastern European countries were signed, covering areas such as cross-border road transportation, China Europe freight train collection and distribution, port logistics, overseas stations, and multimodal transport, laying specific notes for the next practical cooperation.Editor/Yang Meiling