Welcoming his Mongolian counterpart Mangal Dugersuren on 9 February, 1978, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then Minister for External Affairs, Government of India, and former Prime Minister of India, detailed the philosophical depth and emotional warmth of contacts between the two countries.

Ïndia and Mongolia are ancient lands of Asia. The history of cultural collaboration between India and Mongolia is most fascinating and unique and as old as the spread of Indian culture and ideas into Central Asia and Siberia. We in India consider the people of Mongolia in high esteem for preserving in translation as well as in manuscripts a vast collection of our precious Sanskrit texts on our philosophy, poetics, logic and astronomy lost by us over the centuries. In modern times, many Mongols visit India-the holy land of Buddhism” (Foreign Affairs Records, vol24, no 2, 1978, pp 86-7).