MINISTER RECEIVES RUSSIAN DEPUTY HEAD OF DEFENSE

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Minister of Defense D.Bat-Erdene Wednesday received Army-General A.V.Bakhin, a First Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation. The latter was here in frames of the working visit of Russia’s President Putin to Mongolia. Mr Bat-Erdene said the cooperation in defence plays a main role in the Mongolia-Russia historical, traditional and good neighbourhood relations, and emphasized that the 75th anniversary of the Khalkh River Battles has been celebrated not only across Mongolia, but also among Russians. Mongolia is thankful to Russia for an assistance in improving arms and techniques of the Mongolian Armed Forces and for preparing military staff, he said and expressed a satisfaction with a successful development of the bilateral relations and cooperation in the defense sector. Mr Bat-Erdene also hoped that the First Deputy Defense Minister will focus attention on a new way of collaboration within the intergovernmental agreement on rendering military and technical non-refundable aid to Mongolia and on renovating the arms and techniques of the Mongolian Armed Forces. He added that Mongolia is maintaining a policy on preparing its military staff, administrative officials and engineers in Russian military universities. In response, Army-General Bakhin expressed satisfaction with a present bilateral traditional relations and said Russia wants to continue the active collaboration with Mongolia.