TWO SPEAKERS HOLD OFFICIAL TALKS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Chairman of the State Great Khural (parliament) Z.Enkhbold and the Speaker of the National Assembly of Turkey Mr Cemil Cicek ran official talks in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday. Mr Enkhbold congratulated Mr Cicek on visiting Mongolia and wished him an enjoyable time here. Mentioning about the 45th anniversary of the Mongolia-Turkey diplomatic relations marked this year, Mr Enkhbold emphasized that the current visit will significantly contribute to forwarding of the bilateral relations and cooperation, and expressed a satisfaction with an intensive development of the friendly ties between the two countries’ people. "Within my visit to Turkey, our countries established the visa-free agreement which allows now people to travel each other country for 30 days, and good condition has been formed to boost business, cultural and inter-citizen ties," he said. Mongolia wants to study Turkey's experience in processing leather and skins and to attract investments from Turkish companies, he added. The ties between the friendly groups at two parliaments must be activated to become a powerful lobby to enhance the cooperation, he said, adding that a cooperation between the parliamentary Offices have been developing. In response, Mr Cicek said the Mongolia-Turkey long-year cooperation has been expanding and congratulated Mongolia on becoming the member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He also said that he will focus on matters discussed with the Mongolian Speaker. The visa-free agreement greatly forwarded the business and inter-citizen ties, a collaboration in energy sector is vital in developing the industrial sector’s cooperation, he went on. A working group has been set up on this matter between the two countries but official talks and meetings have not launched yet, he noted. Turkey will pay great attention to augmenting of a quota of Mongolian students to study in Turkey, he added. Mr Cicek agreed with a necessity to expand the cooperation in law enforcement and defense fields, and proposed mounting a joint exhibition of leather products. He said Turkey has a plan to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and hoped that Mongolia will back this ambition. Present at the talks were L.Bold, the Minister of Foreign Affairs; A.Bakei MP, a head of the Mongolia-Turkey inter-parliamentary group; O.Baasankhuu and A.Tleikhan MPs, also B.Boldbaatar, the secretary-general of the Parliamentary Office; Murat Karagoz, the Ambassador of Turkey to Mongolia; Fehmi Kupcu, a member of the National Assembly of Turkey and head of the Turkey-Mongolia parliamentary group; and other officials.