Minister B.Battsetseg, during her official visit to the People’s Republic of China, held talks with State Councilor and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi, on July 27 in Tianjin city.

During the talks, the foreign ministers exchanged views on a wide range of issues related to the bilateral cooperation and regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Sharing the view that strengthening mutual understanding and trust in the political field creates an enabling environment to further enhance the cooperation in other areas, the foreign ministers stated that the heads of states and governments, and speakers of the parliaments have reached many important agreements to develop the bilateral ties during their telephone conversations. And the foreign ministers agreed to actively cooperate to implement the agreements reached by the leaders of the two countries.

The two sides agreed to carry out the visits by the Speaker of the State Great Khural and the Prime Minister of Mongolia as soon as the pandemic situation eases and to organize the meetings of inter-parliamentarian regular mechanism and inter-foreign ministry strategic dialogue mechanism in a proper format.

The ministers commended the active cooperation maintained by the two countries amid the challenging situation posed by COVID-19 that could serve as an example of effective cooperation against the pandemic.

The two sides agreed to further enhance the cooperation against the COVID-19 and issued a joint statement on strengthening cooperation to fight the pandemic.

The joint statement underscores the need for preventive measures against the pandemic and the efforts to restore trade and economic cooperation moving forward simultaneously, and increasing trade turnover and freight transportation by fully utilizing the “Green passage” temporary regime established at the Mongolia-China border checkpoints.

The two sides further agreed to intensify their efforts to align their development policies, implement large scale projects and programs in the areas of mining, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and environment protection, and to reach the goal of increasing the bilateral trade turnover to USD 10 billion in the near future.

The two sides pledged to cooperate in increasing Mongolia’s coal export to China through intensifying traffic flows at bordering checkpoints of Zamiin-Uud-Erlian, Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod and Shiveekhuren-Sekhee on the basis of strengthening preventive measures against the spread of the pandemic, concluding long-term coal purchase contract under commercial terms, and introducing innovative types of transportation. The two sides also agreed to cooperate in increasing the export of agricultural products from Mongolia and facilitating the resumption of meat export from its western region.

The two sides agreed to organize the regular meeting of the Mongolia-China joint council on mining, energy and infrastructure cooperation in the third quarter of this year to thoroughly discuss major projects to be implemented in energy and infrastructure.

The two sides also agreed to intensify the work to determine the location of the Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod railway border crossing point.

The two sides concurred that relevant organizations from the two countries would pay more attention to accelerating the implementation progress of the ongoing projects in Mongolia carried out with China’s soft loans and grants, and addressing the difficulties caused by the pandemic.

As the two heads of state agreed during their telephone conversation to pay special attention to intensifying cooperation to fight desertification and dust storms, the foreign ministers decided to expedite the information exchange between the relevant organizations and work closely on the implementation of joint projects.  The ministers also stressed the importance of signing “The Protocol on Cooperation in Combating Desertification, Yellow Dust Storm Movement and Prevention” and renewing “The Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation in Combating Wildfires nearby the Border”.

The two sides expressed their willingness to maintain the cultural, education and humanitarian cooperation as normally as possible amid the pandemic. The ministers agreed to work on the gradual resumption of cross-border movement of citizens of the two countries based on effective infection control. The Chinese side expressed its readiness to favorably consider allowing Mongolian students come to China and continue classroom studies.

Reiterating the great importance that the both countries attach to the development of the trilateral cooperation between Mongolia, Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China, the two sides agreed to further accelerate the implementation of the trilateral economic corridor and provide support to the relevant entities from the three countries to speed up the development of the feasibility study for the Russia-China gas pipeline to transit through the territory of Mongolia.

During the official talks, the Mongolian and Chinese ministers exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and expressed their willingness to continue their close and friendly cooperation in this area.