SPEAKER RECEIVES AMBASSADOR OF LAOS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The Speaker, Z.Enkhbold received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of People's Democratic Republic of Laos to Mongolia, Mr Bunyan Sai Sanawon on September 3. Z.Enkhbold said the new parliament and government will continue eveloping the traditional friendly relations with Laos. One of the aspects of Mongolia's foreign policy is to strengthen ties and collaboration with Asia Pacific, especially with the ACEAN states including Laos with whom "we have long-year friendly relations". He said this September 12 the 50th anniversary of Mongolia-Laos diplomatic relations is to take place, and that many action are planned, for example, scientific conference and photo exhibition. The decisions made by the Mongolia-Laos 8th intergovernmental meeting must be realized, and that by developing relations between the two sides' private sectors, universities, institutes, aimags and regions, the cooperation's new opportunities are to open, "and we will support these spheres". Within the UN and multilateral cooperation, the sides have been supporting each others, and "in future we need to cooperate in many matters, for example, on overcoming problems of landlocked countries". The Ambassador congratulated Mr Enkhbold on becoming the Speaker and passed him a greeting from Ms Pany Yathotou, a head of National Assembly of People's Democratic Republic of Laos. Within the cooperation, Ms Pany Yathotou paid a visit to Mongolia, for example, and this was an important step to strengthen a development of the relations and cooperation. He hopes that the Mongolian representatives of parliament will attend the Asia-Europe Parliamentary meeting /Asep/ and Asia Europe Meeting /ASEM/ on October 3-4 in Laos. The tow sides' relations and cooperation are boosting in agriculture, health and physical education spheres, for example, 35 Lao students are studying in three state universities in Mongolia, he added. He said an invitation for the Speaker to visit Laos with a visit is valid and added that he is ready to work on developing of the traditional friendly relations. B.Oyundelger