The XVI sitting of the Virtual Silk Highway NATO Science Committee Project and the VI meeting of IT specialists of Caucasus and Central Asia closed in Ashgabat n November 22.

The forum organised by the Supreme Council for Science and Technology under President of Turkmenistan brought together the representatives of the partner organisations included into the Turkmen science-educational network, the Virtual Silk Highway NATO Science Committee Project coordinators, the scientists from the Eurasian universities, the IT specialists from Caucasus and Central Asia, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia, Belarus and Afghanistan.

The main agenda items included introduction of the IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) version – the next project stage. The project coordinators informed that the project activities would be conducted in the above-mentioned format. Thus, the 4 version would be replaced by the most effective next generation version with the wider address space. The project IT specialists discussed the plan for applying it in the regional and national networks. In this context the participants focused on network security, setting and configuration adjustment, modes of operation of the new version, etc.

The representatives of the countries participating in the Virtual Silk Highway Project presented the reports. The participants designed the draft recommendations and joint programmes aimed at tackling the problems faced by the interested parties of further expansion of the internet infrastructure. Thus, the regular sitting under the NATO Science Committee Project laid the foundation of the next stage of international scientific co-operation.