PRIME MINISTER MEETS CHUCK HAGEL FEATURED

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Prime Minister of Mongolia N.Altankhuyag Thursday met with visiting Mr Chuck Hagel, the US Secretary of Defense. The Premier expressed a satisfaction with expansion of the Mongolia-USA comprehensive partnership relations in many fields, and said the defense sector cooperation is one of the pillars of this partnership. In response, Mr Hagel said the USA is grateful to the Mongolian Armed Forces for their successful service in the UN peacekeeping operation, being highly spoken by the UN and other international sides. Mr Hagel said that with Mongolian Defence Minister D.Bat-Erdene he had discussed ways of widening the cooperation in defense. To this the Premier emphasized that the government of Mongolia will support an implementation of master goals of the Mongolia-USA defense collaboration. The US Secretary of Defense Mr Hagel visits Mongolia for the first time, but it is the second visit paid by a US Secretary of Defense to Mongolia.