H.E. Mr. Munkh-Orgil Tsend, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, chaired the Fiftheeth Annual Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries which took place on 22 September on the margins of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The current Ministerial Meeting was convened on the theme “Harnessing Coherence in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Vienna Programme of Action” and was attended by Mr. Gyan Chandra Acharya, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, UN-OHRLLS, Ms. Helen Clark, Administrator of UNDP and Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General of DESA who delivered remarks on their activities supporting the landlocked developing countries.

During the meeting Minister Ts.Munkh-Orgil made a statement in his national capacity, where he stressed the importance of aligning the implementation of the Vienna Program of Action (VPA) with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the national, regional and global levels. Furthermore, the Minister emphasized the contribution of the International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries in strengthening capacity of the LLDCs to undertake research and analysis and urged the fellow LLDCs to ratify the multilateral agreement for the establishment of an international think tank for LLDCs.

The Foreign Ministers from Azerbaijan, Burkino Faso, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Malawi, Paraguay, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe attended the Ministerial Meeting and delivered statements respectively on their pressing issues, further actions and opportunities for partnerships.

Mongolia was elected as vice chair of the group of Landlocked Developing Countries in September, 2016.

PERMANENT MISSION OF MONGOLIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
22 September 2016