New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit Mongolia from 25-26 April 2018 at the invitation of H.E. Damdin Tsogtbaatar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia. This will be her first visit to Mongolia. The last visit of Indian External Affairs Minister to Mongolia was 42 years ago.
During her visit, Swaraj will co-chair the 6th round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee (IMJCC) meeting with her counterpart, covering a range of issues including, inter alia, political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties. The last meeting of IMJCC was held in New Delhi in 2016.
She will also deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula Birth Centenary Celebrations in Ulaanbaatar commemorating the birth anniversary of 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche.
Rinpoche, a Buddhist lama, was the longest serving Indian ambassador to Mongolia and is known for reviving Buddhism in Mongolia and Russia.
Talking about India-Mongolia relations, former External Affairs Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stated in 1978, “India and Mongolia are ancient lands of the ancient people of Asia. The historic and cultural collaboration between India and Mongolia is fascinating and unique and is as old as the history of the spread of Indian culture and ideas into Central Asia and Siberia. We in India consider the Mongol veneration of Sanskrit, a matter of special privilege. We hold the people of Mongolia in high esteem for preserving in translation as well as in manuscripts, the vast collection of our precious Sanskrit text on our philosophy, poetry, logic, and astronomy lost by us over centuries. In modern times, too many Mongols visited India – the land of Buddhism.”
India established diplomatic relations with Mongolia on 24 December 1955 and the first resident Mission was opened in Ulaanbaatar on 22 February 1971.
In 2015, PM Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Mongolia when he visited the country during his landmark tour of the Far East.
(With Inputs from MEA)
