MONGOLIA-SWEDEN CONSULTATIVE MEETING HELD

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ Diplomats of Mongolia and the Kingdom of Sweden exchanged views on the coutries' relations and cooperation at a consultative meeting between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs. The meeting took place on March 21-22 in Stockholm, Sweden. It was co-chaired by G.Tenger, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, and by Frank Belfrage, the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, with a participation of B.Enkhmandakh, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to Sweden, and other officials. The diplomatic relations between Mongolia and Sweden were established in 1964, the Embassy of Mongolia opened in December 2009, bringing positive results to widening of the comprehensive relations and cooperation. The bilateral trade turnover reached USD 49 million by 2011 against the year 2010, increasing by almost three times. Mongolia has imported products such as cars, mining techniques and electric facilities from Sweden. Moreover, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has rendered a development assistance of some USD 30 million to Mongolia in the last 20 years. During the above meeting, Mr. Tenger said the government of Mongolia sincerely thanks the government of Sweden for the assistance which significantly contributed to transition of Mongolia to the market economy. He passed invitations to Sweden Minister of foreign affairs and the Speaker from their Mongolian counterparts. After the meeting, the Vice Minister G.Tenger met with Dr. Bates Gill, a director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI); Mr. Vidar Helgesen, the secretary-general of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IIDEA); and Ms. Ann Linde, the secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden. They have talked about an Environmental Ministerial Conference of the ASEM countries to be held in May of 2012 in UB and on international seminar on education for democracy. B.Khuder