State Palace, January 14, 2015
Your Excellency Dean of the Diplomatic Corps,
Excellencies Ambassadors, Charge dé Affairs,
Representatives of International Organizations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to meet with you today, just a day after Mongolia observed an events of a profound historic value for us - the 23rd Anniversary of the Adoption of the new Constitution of Mongolia country. Along with my cordial gratitude for accepting our invitation, I extend to you the greetings for the New Year.
As you may have noted, the Years of the Horse have often been auspicious for Mongolia, with records of success and achievements. And as you also have seen, the past 2014 was a year of both success and challenges for Mongolia.
A new government, as we rendered, the “government of solutions”, has been formed aspiring greater opportunities for development in spite of the blows of time. The Grand Coalition Government, while maintaining the continuity of our foreign policy, works to find optimal solutions to the multitude of issues facing our country today.
In particular, I do support actions and efforts to commence major mining and investment projects, assuring and enhancing confidence among domestic and foreign investors, ensuring economic growth and improving the livelihood of our citizens.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the past year, Mongolia recorded notable success and achievements in our foreign policy realm.
The relations of our country with our two neighbors were reinvigorated with the respective visits of the Heads of State of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China to Mongolia. At the initiative of Mongolia, for the first time, the Ulaanbaatar Tri-partite Summit of the Heads of State of Mongolia, the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China took place during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit of Heads of State of member countries in Dushanbe.
These high-level visits and summit have established a favorable foundation to further enhance our cooperation in infrastructure, railways, environment, construction and other sectors. We have advanced and enriched the scope and level of bilateral relations and cooperation with our two neighbors, and have solidified the foundation for substantive cooperation with our third neighbors.
In 2014, I paid visits to Liechtenstein, Japan, Austria and Hungary and participated in the Plenary and other sessions of the World Economic Forum, the Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and the ASEM Summit.
Mongolia hosted the President of Latvia, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Speaker of the Assembly of the Union of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, all bearing high importance.
The ratification of the “Agreement on Transparency in Matters Related to International Trade and Investment between Mongolia and the United States of America” by the State Great Hural and an agreement in principle between Mongolia and Japan to conclude an “Economic Partnership Agreement” have created practical opportunities and capabilities to expand our foreign economic cooperation.
As a country which pursues active foreign policy on global arena, Mongolia has been striving to contribute to stability in the Asia Pacific region, in particular to that of the Northeast Asian sub-region. With a view to contribute to maintaining stability in Northeast Asia and ensuring regional security through confidence-building Mongolia has set forth the “Ulaanbaatar Dialogue” Initiative. Within the confines of the dialogue the first International symposium was successfully organized in Ulaanbaatar.
As a responsible member of the international community, Mongolia established an assistance fund - International Cooperation Fund to share our democratic transition experiences and provide development and technical support for emerging democracies. Under these premises, we are actively collaborating with countries in the region such as Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Afghanistan.
I wish to also note here that at the invitation of the 2014 Chair of APEC, Mongolia attended the APEC Summit for the first time as a special guest.
At the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit held in Milan, Mongolia was entrusted with an honorable and responsible mission to host the 11th Summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Ulaanbaatar. I would like to express once again our deepest gratitude to all member-states of ASEM for providing support in our quest to host in 2016 the 20th anniversary historic summit of ASEM bringing together Asia and Europe.
We started preparations for the Summit last year already and we have established a National Council to undertake functional and organizational duties for hosting the Summit.
We will observe the 25th anniversary of our Democratic Revolution throughout this year of 2015. Within the confines of the observation of this historic anniversary, we will commemorate the first free and democratic election as well as the establishment of the first democratic legislative, executive and judiciary governance in Mongolia in July and September, 2015.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the State and Government of Mongolia, I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all of you for your close cooperation and high professionalism in your noble mission to develop the relations and cooperation between Mongolia and your respective countries and organizations in every field.
At this juncture, I am pleased to share with you with a great news. Very soon, in a matter of just few days, Mongolia will welcome our 3-millionth citizen. Mongolians are a nation which reveringly exult at child-birth: “The more the people, the richer the dinners”,
I am sincerely happy and grateful to you that you are with us at this momentous occasion sharing with us this joy.
A New Year brings new commitments, changes, new opportunities. I wish you sustained success and positive changes in 2015.
Happy New Year!