Ulaanbaatar/New Delhi, Oct 11 A Mongolian-Indian business forum, a “Beautiful Homeland of Mongolia” concert and painting and Morin Khuur exhibitions will also be held next week during the State Visit of Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa to India from October 13-16, his office in Ulaanbaatar stated on Saturday.
Strategic partners, spiritual neighbours India and Mongolia set to enhance historic ties
The events are expected to give a major boost to India’s long-standing historical and cultural ties with the resource-rich nation, which have continue to be on the upswing since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic trip to Ulaanbaatar in May 2015 when the relationship between the two countries was upgraded to ‘strategic partnership’ and declared as an essential component of India’s ‘Act East Policy’.
A high-level delegation comprising Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, senior officials, business leaders, and cultural representatives will accompany the President of Mongolia on his State Visit which is taking place at the invitation of President Droupadi Murmu.
“This visit is taking place in the context of the historic 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. President U. Khurelsukh plans to meet with the President of the Republic of India, Droupadi Murmu, and hold formal talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expand and develop the ‘Strategic Partnership’ relations and cooperation between the two countries, as well as exchange views on a wide range of issues of cooperation in the regional and international arenas,” read a statement issued by the Mongolian President’s Office highlighting that it will be Khurelsukh Ukhnaa’s first visit to India in his capacity as Head of State of Mongolia.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), President Murmu will meet Khurelsukh and host a banquet in his honour. The visiting President will also hold talks with Prime Minister Modi and review the entire gamut of bilateral relations. Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar are expected to call on the visiting dignitary.
“Diplomatic relations between India and Mongolia were established in 1955. Over the past seven decades, the two countries have developed a close and multifaceted partnership, anchored in shared cultural and spiritual links and democratic values. The partnership spans across sectors such as defence and security, parliamentary exchanges, development partnership, energy, mining, information technology, education, healthcare, and cultural cooperation,” read a statement issued by the MEA.
“India and Mongolia are Strategic Partners, Spiritual Neighbours, and Third Neighbours. The forthcoming State Visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of India and Mongolia to review progress in bilateral relations, set the vision for strengthening the strategic partnership, and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest,” it added.
On September 24, during his official visit to the country, MEA Secretary (East) P Kumaran visited the oil refinery project at Altanshiree, Dornogovi Province in Mongolia, which is being constructed with a US$1.7 billion soft Line of Credit (LoC) from the Indian government. The project is the Indian government’s single-largest soft Line of Credit project globally.
Mongolia’s Ambassador to India, Ganbold Dambajav, in a recent interview with IANS, had lauded PM Modi’s leadership while hailing India’s growing stature in the world.
“He is one of the most popular politicians in the world due to his achievements since he became the Prime Minister in 2014… We know that there are more than 37 initiatives that have come up during his tenure as Prime Minister. All have been improving the quality of life for the Indian people, bringing the businesses back to India. Make In India, Digital India, you name it, the last on the GST initiative. So, all those initiatives are bringing the well-being and prosperity for Indian people, Indian businesses, and opening India up to the world. Based on all those achievements, the world is recognising Modi ji as the most popular and most renowned politician. So, I hope with his vision, in the near future, India will become the third economy in the world and there are more achievements that India can fulfill during his tenure as Prime Minister,” Dambajav stated.
The diplomat recalled PM Modi’s State Visit to Mongolia in 2015, during which the Mongolian parliament had a special session on Sunday where the visiting leader delivered his remarks to the country’s lawmakers. The honour, he said, has been given to very few politicians or leaders around the world.
He noted that India and Mongolia are commemorating the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties in 2025.
Highlighting the cooperation between two nations in various sectors, he said, “Our bilateral relations go back to many centuries… We have a long rich heritage history in bilateral relations. With the historic visit of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mongolia in 2015, our relations were elevated to the level of strategic partnership, which gave us a broad opportunity to enrich and deepen our partnerships, not only in politics but also in the fields of defence, economy, health, education and the IT sector. For most of the Mongolians, India is a land of Lord Buddha. So, we have many Mongolians coming to India for worship or pilgrimage. Also, we have Mongolian monks studying long-term Buddhism in India.
“We also have many students who come in to study in India on the scholarship received from the ICCR besides for the short-term training through the high-tech programmes. So, there are a lot of opportunities and we see that economic cooperation is one of the engines of our bilateral relations. I’m happy to say that our pioneer project, the oil refinery, is now under construction and will be fully operational by 2027. It will provide the domestic use of 70 per cent of our petroleum and in the future if we enrich it, it can reach at a level of 100 per cent for our domestic usage,” he added.
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