ELBEGDORJ DELIVERS SPEECH AT CICA SUMMIT FEATURED

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj Wednesday gave a speech at the 4th Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit, which was held May 20-21 in Shanghai, China. Beginning his speech, Mr Elbegdorj congratulated Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for assuming the chairmanship of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, the CICA, and then noted that "CICA’s international reputation has strengthened, and with the expansion of the scope of its activities, the number of member states is increasing". "CICA has emerged as an important dialogue mechanism for strengthening peace, stability and security in Asia through deepening all-around cooperation, enhancing mutual understanding and confidence among the countries of the region." "I wish to welcome and congratulate the new members - Qatar and Bangladesh for joining the CICA," he said. The President also emphasized that developing relations and cooperation with Asian countries and effective involvement in the regional integration is one of the priorities of Mongolia’s foreign policy, and added Mongolia has been endeavoring to contribute to the common cause and efforts of the international community to address and resolve the pressing issues and challenges of the region and the world. “Neighboring with two powers with nuclear weapons, Mongolia declared its territory a nuclear-weapon-free zone over 20 years ago and has been working hard to institutionalize this status as a mechanism. "In September 2012, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have issued a joint declaration recognizing Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-free status and pledged to respect that status and not to contribute to any act that violate it. "This declaration testifies that Mongolia can effectively and meaningfully contribute to achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world. "To enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the countries of Northeast Asia and in pursuit of long term goals for regional peace and stability, I have proposed an Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on the Northeast Asia Security initiative. Mongolia, as a landlocked developing country, pays a concerted attention in alleviating international trade and transportation,” he said, and thanked the landlocked developing countries in Asia for supporting Mongolia’s initiative and signing the Intergovernmental Agreement on establishing an International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries. The President said Mongolia has been paying a concerted attention to engaging in mutually beneficial and constructive cooperation with CICA member states, including our immediate neighbors - Russia and China, in trade, investment, infrastructure, transit transportation sectors and other important economic sectors. Then he noted that as Mongolia’s economy grows and expands, the prospects and opportunities of active cooperation with the countries of Asia and Pacific in mining, energy, infrastructure and other sectors are increasing. Mr Elbegdorj mentioned that Ulaanbaatar hosted last year the World Economic Forum’s first Strategic Dialogue Roundtable on the Future of Mongolia within the framework of the “Development Scenarios for Mongolia” project implemented in cooperation with the WEF, saying that he deeply appreciated and thanked Turkey for its invaluable contributions and efforts to strengthen the CICA as well as to enhance regional security, promote economic, cultural and environmental cooperation in the past 4 years. He reaffirmed that Mongolia’s commitment and readiness to actively cooperate with CICA, its member states and observer countries for peace, security in Asia, for prosperity and wellbeing of the peoples of our countries.