The first Roadmap meeting for the West Eurasia FMD network was held in Istanbul, Turkey on 08-09 October 2009. The meeting was organized by FAO in consultation with OIE, and hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture of Turkey. The Workshop was convened as a joint meeting under the FMD projects implemented by the EuFMD Commission (FAO) in Turkey, Trans-Caucasus, Iran and Syria, and the GTFS/INT/907/ITA project for Central Asian countries.

Invitations were sent by FAO, on behalf of the two organizations, to the Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) and to the FAO national consultants on FMD (EuFMD or GTFS projects).  In total, fifteen countries in West Eurasia were represented, with the Russian Federation represented through the OIE Reference Laboratory (FGI-ARRIAH).The Objectives of the Workshop were to review progress in FMD control in West Eurasia, towards the vision of a region free of clinical FMD by 2020 - using the Vision statement and "Regional Roadmap" developed at the Shiraz meeting in November 2008; to share information on FMD virus circulation within the ecosystem to assist planning of preventive measures in the short-term.