METG PT/EAST/23 Meeting and SWIM Implementation Workshop Strengthen Regional MET Collaboration in Samarkand, Uzbekistan - 1 to 4 July 2025

From 1 to 4 July 2025, nearly 60 aviation meteorology experts, system developers, and regional stakeholders gathered in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a productive and forward-looking series of meetings organized by the ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office and hosted by the Civil Aviation Agency under the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The event comprised a dedicated Sub-Regional Workshop on System-Wide Information Management (SWIM), followed by the Twenty-third Meeting of the Project Team on the Implementation of Meteorological Services in the Eastern Part of the EUR Region (PT/EAST/23).

The SWIM Workshop, held on 1 July 2025, aimed to accelerate regional understanding and adoption of ICAO’s SWIM framework, which underpins global interoperability and seamless data exchange across aviation domains. Sessions covered both the conceptual and practical aspects of SWIM (services, registries, governance, and architecture), as well as national and regional implementation experiences, demonstrations of IWXXM-based MET workflows, and enabling infrastructure, including data-centric services, secure registries, and digital identity management (PKI). The workshop also emphasized SWIM’s alignment with ICAO’s Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP). It highlighted the importance of preparing MET providers for service-based information exchange, moving away from traditional product-based models.
 

From July 2 to 4, 2025, the PT/EAST/23 meeting brought together national regulators and operational stakeholders to assess progress and coordinate future MET activities across the Eastern EUR Region. The meeting reaffirmed the target for all PT/EAST States to achieve operational use of IWXXM by the end of 2026, consistent with global METP targets.

Participants reviewed current procedures for SIGMET coordination and identified practical steps toward developing “seamless SIGMET” models to reduce fragmentation across adjacent Flight Information Regions (FIRs). States also exchanged views on cross-border data-sharing mechanisms, including the need for harmonized policies on access, licensing, and security.

Looking ahead, the outcomes of PT/EAST/23 and the SWIM Workshop will directly inform regional input to ICAO’s Meteorology Group (METG) and the European Air Navigation Planning Group (EASPG), while also contributing to the continuous refinement of the EUR SWIM Roadmap and related implementation support activities.