Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Chinese side has canceled several planned meetings and events, including a visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia to the People’s Republic of China. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC has condemned Mongolia for hosting the Dalai Lama and stated that Mongolia must take concrete actions to remove negative effects on bilateral ties.

MONTSAME Agency has clarified about the situation from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ts.Munkh-Orgil.

The latter said that Chinese side has notified of the cancellation of several visits from Mongolia yesterday. “Among the visits and meetings were, the planned consultative meeting between the State Great Khural of Mongolia and the parliament of China, which takes place every two years and considers important matters between legislatures. It was cancelled”.

“A working group, led by Deputy PM U.Khurelsukh was supposed to meet with the group headed by the Chairman of the Development and Reform Commission of China. The meeting was intended for negotiations on soft loans and the projects on Tavantolgoi railroad, copper plant and coal gasification. Unfortunately, the Chinese side responded this visit was unacceptable”.

Moreover, I was expecting to pay a visit at the invitation of the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs to review the results of Deputy PM U.Khurelsukh’s visit, and discuss preparation for a visit of the Prime Minister of Mongolia to China, expected next year. The Chinese side have notified us, but not officially that this visit might also be postponed”.

“The Minister of Road and Transport Development of Mongolia and the Minister of Road and Transport of China and Russia were supposed to sign a tri-partite agreement during the Asia-Pacific Ministeral Conference on Transport, to be held in Moscow on December 5-7. We assumed this action might also be postponed and expressed out regret to the Chinese side”.

Furthermore, our side has released an explanation that the visit by the Dalai Lama was not motivated by or related to politics, and only aimed at delivering his teachings to the Buddhists of Mongolia. We also expressed our hope that these canceled meetings and visits will be re-arranged soon. Our explanation made clear that there was no involvement on the part of the government and politicians of Mongolia in inviting the Dalai Lama, that this visit was organized by religious organizations led by the Khamba Lama of the Gandantegchinlen Monastery of Ulaanbaatar D.Choijamts, that state and religion are separate in Mongolia, therefore, the Government has nothing to do with the Dalai Lama’s visit, and that the government has shown as equal respect to the faithful of Mongolia as they have shown to the religious leader’s visit to Mongolia”, concluded the Minister.