Ulaanbaatar
President Elbegdorj receives Speaker of India
PoliticsUlaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The leader of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj Tuesday received visiting Ms Sumitra Mahajan, the Speaker of the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Indian parliament.
He congratulated Ms Sumitra on coming to take part in the 9th Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP9), said he always glad to welcome guests from India and wished her nice stay in Mongolia. The he explained why he is glad to see the Indian guests:"Firstly, our countries have had long-year friendly relations, especially in cultural, religious and inter-citizens' ties; we celebrated our diplomatic ties' 60 years last year; moreover, the Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi visited Mongolia in 2015".
In response, Ms Sumitra said she is happy to visit Mongolia, and explained why she is paying a courtesy call on the President. Firstly, she said, our countries have been keeping long-year intellectual ties; secondly, India always respects achievements of Mongolia in the democracy. The Mongolia-India relations have lifted to the strategic partnership level, she added.
The Indian PM Narendra Modi visited Mongolia last year, this is an expression of India people's attitude to Mongolians, she said. Within his visit, our countries brought their ties into the strategic partnership, now the two sides are designing a development of a newer level, she said.
She believes that a soft loan of one billion US dollars from India will contribute to a development of Mongolian infrastructure, culture and other spheres.
The Mongolians name India as its Third neighbor. Although our countries are some hundreds kilometres apart, they act as close neighbors in terms of ties in intellectual spirit, culture and education, she said.
After this she appreciated the President Elbegdorj's great contribution to the development of the democracy in Mongolia.
In response, he noted that a democracy development is not an easy job, and said India is one of the most suitable for Mongolia partners in terms of democracy.
