Mongolia this year is marking the 25th anniversary of the first free and fair elections which ushered my country into the political democracy and market economy. Following the great Indian tradition of Ahimsa (Non violence) to get rid of British Raj nearly seventy years ago we launched democratic changes in Mongolia in early 1990s peacefully without any violence. India supported these sweeping transformations from their very beginning and the Parliament of India along with fellow Asian legislative bodies made its valuable contributions in inserting democratic norms and principles in our Constitution in 1992.

The Governments of Mongolia and India have defined the core principles of their relations and cooperation which enshrined in their Joint Declaration of 1973 and reaffirmed time and again. Since then we have concluded the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation in 1994 and Treaty on Comprehensive Partnership in 2008 and Treaty on Stratgeic Partnership in 2015 and have agreed to collobrate in all available fields. At present there are over 50 treaties and agreements that have been implemented between our countries. Thus, ties with centuries old history have grown into strategic partnership at this time of turbulent but promising prespective.

India supported the transformations for political democracy and market economy of 1990’s from their very beginning and the Parliament of India along with fellow Asian legislative bodies made its valuable contributions in drafting our first democratic Constitution.

Barring mining agriculture and animal husbandary have substantive role in our economies, so both Mongolia and India pay much importance to climate change and environmental protection which are indeed promising areas for broader integration.

The Government of India rendered assistance to Mongolia in training our national personnel and promoting SME under its ITEC program. The Indian Government has also been providing short and long term trainings to our professionals since 1987. Our youth are studying in the Indian universities on the stipends provided by the Government and private sector’s stipends.

Mongolia and India are both peace loving nations and free from any military alliances. Both countries have been constructively collaborating with Non Aligned Movement, United Nations, World Trade Organization, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to avoid of conflicts and facilitate understanding and cooperation to the benefit of universal well-being.

We unanimously denounce all forms of extremism and express our firm determination to strive against religious fundamentalism and violent terrorism.

Soon after my happy reunion with India after one and half decade having received my Letters of Credence as Ambassador of Mongolia on September 2, 2015 in which H.E. Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India underlined the ancient cultural and spiritual ties between India and Mongolia.

The following day to this symbolic but very important moment in my career as newly minted Ambassador, I had also an opportunity to attend the international symposium on Global Hindu-Buddhist Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environmental Consciousness co-hosted by the Vivekanada International Foundation of India and the Tokyo Foundation of Japan. The three day international symposium held in New Delhi and Bodhgaya of Bihar helped me in recalling what the President of India highlighted in his brief remarks on the age old ties between our two nations.