The 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations established by Mongolia with six countries; Republic of Poland, Republic of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Republic of Hungary and Romania occur in late April.

In the early 1950s, when humankind emancipated from dangers of war and peaceful life was starting, Mongolia established diplomatic relations with these countries which were socialist at that time. Since establishment of official diplomatic relations with these Eastern-European countries, Mongolia had intensive relations and cooperation in political, economic, educational, scientific and humanitarian sectors.

Ambassadors of six Eastern-European nations respond to media at a press conference held in the foreign ministry

With their financial and technical assistance and help from specialists of the Eastern European countries, many industrial places and social and cultural buildings including Bio Factory, Darkhan Sheepskin Cloth Industry, enterprises of cement, silicate and brick, State Central Clinic and State Circus were constructed in Mongolia. Also Darkhan City was founded with the help of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. Also Mongolia imported goods from Europe and Mongolia’s products were sold on the European market.

“Since Mongolia cooperates with eastern European countries, European culture spread across Mongolia and developed along with national nomadic civilization. It is one of biggest actual outcomes of relations and cooperation with the countries. Movements for democracy and reform started later in the 1980s in eastern European countries and had an influence on remote Mongolia. It is proof that intellectual space of Eurasia is unified and solid. We were motivated by our north neighbor for change and got the experience of making reform from the countries that made democratic revolutions. So, Mongolians could make democratic revolution in a peaceful way 20 years ago, and made effective transition from a political totalitarian regime to multi-partial democratic system and from centralized economy to market economy,” said State Secretary of Foreign Ministry D. Tsogtbaatar at the press conference for the
60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations.

Out of the six countries, Bulgaria and Czech now have embassies in Mongolia and the others closed their embassies for financial reasons. Ambassadors of the countries in Beijing, which represent their countries for Mongolia and the 1st Secretaries of the Embassies arrived in Mongolia and participated in the event for the jubilee. They recalled achievements in relations from the past period and exchanged views on the future outlook for relations and how they can be expanded.

During the press conference held on April 23 at the Foreign Ministry, Ambassadors and diplomats answered questions by reporters that the people, inter-people direct relations, friendship and mutual assistance are the main basis to expand bilateral relations and cooperation. They expressed an interest to increase the number of Mongolian students studying in their countries as much as possible. In past years, about 300 Mongolians were educated in the Czech Republic and Poland each, over 400 Mongolians in Hungary, about 500 in Bulgaria and more than 200 in Romania.

The Ambassadors expressed having an optimistic view for relations and cooperation with Mongolia, and noted the possibility to intensify economic and trade cooperation and discover a new sector and direction of cooperation. Polish Ambassador Tadeush Homitsky said that Mongolian and Polish military troops not only stand shoulder-toshoulder to establish stability in Iraq but are also together for peacekeeping in Afghanistan. “Further it may be an interesting field of cooperation of two countries. Mongolia is rich in mineral resources and Poland has state-ofthe- art technology and techniques for extraction of coal and oil. We have an interest to cooperate in this area. Also it is possible to introduce Mongolia technology for changing the wheel of train without stopping it. Now we are cooperating with Mongolia on firefighting and work to expand cultural programs because the education of youth is investment for the future,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of cultural cooperation for bilateral relations and reported that a Polish song and dance ensemble which gave a performance in Mongolia in 1957 will give a concert in Mongolia this July.

Romanian Ambassador Viorel Isticioaia Budura expressed Romania’s interest to expand traditional relations with Mongolia and said that the country’s Investment Office intends to organize many activities to eliminate barriers and establish direct cooperation between private businesses of the countries. Bulgaria’s Charge d’ Affaires K. Kolev took an example of successful development of bilateral political cooperation with the recent mutual visits of presidents and said that the 5th meeting of intergovernmental commission on cooperation of trade, economy, and sciences will be held this year and the two countries are seeking new forms and directions of bilateral cooperation.

The ambassadors expressed their appraisal for Mongolia’s aspiration to introduce EU’s standards to the home country.

“Presently, our countries believe that there is a possibility to deepen and enrich relations and cooperation based on common wealth such as democracy, human rights, freedom and market economy. Mongolia confronts a way of intensive development to possess big mining deposits, expand infrastructure, attract foreign investment and progressive techniques and technology, intensify constructional works, increase jobs and improve livelihoods of people by substantial level. At the present time of high responsibility and condition, Mongolia aspires to study the experiences of eastern European countries that naturalized EU standards and qualifications effectively in their countries, introduce the standards to their home country, learn state-of-theart development for modern humanity and develop through effective developmental paths. During his visit to Austria and Hungary last May, Prime Minister S. Batbold clearly expressed this goal and we are satisfied that EU and its member countries are supporting our proposal.

Mongolia has succeeded in the first two stages of Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with EU and its member countries. It has agreed to include a special provision on implementing EU principles, norms, criteria and standards to Mongolia in the PCA. We believe that relations and cooperation of our countries will deepen more as the PCA comes into effect and Mongolia learns experiences and methods of eastern European countries that successfully implemented the conditions and standards to join EU,” said State Secretary of Foreign Ministry.

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