H.E. Mr. Tsend Munkh-Orgil, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, chaired the Fiftheeth Annual Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries which took place on 22 September in the margins of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
This Ministerial Meeting under the theme of “Harnessing Coherence in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Vienna Programme of Action” 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 for 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, Burkina 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 has been elected as Vice chair of the group of Landlocked Developing Countries in September 2016.