Ulaanbaatar /Mongolia/ On January 4, Parliament Speaker  of Mongolia M.Enkhbold, received Masato Takaoka, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia.

After congratulating Ambassador Masato Takaoka for his appointment as an Ambassador of Japan to Mongolia, Speaker Enkhbold said Japan is Mongolia’s a close partner that always provides help to Mongolia and expressed his confidence that the strategic partnership between Mongolia and Japan will be intensified during the Ambassador's tenure, who has a great experience in foreign relations”.

Then, he noted that Japanese assistance and loans have played an important role to the strengthening of democratic reforms and laying the foundation of the modern development. “In the scope of Japan’s Official Development Assistance, several major projects are being realized successfully, such as the construction of a new international airport in Tuv province, a new hospital at the National University of Medical Sciences and training of one thousand engineers. Furthermore, he highlighted that a number of development and humanitarian works have been done through the “Grass Root” program of Japan.

Speaker M.Enkhbold said that “Political trust has been enhanced as never been before and the frequency of reciprocal visits has been increased. For instance, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan visited Mongolia last July to attend the ASEM Summit and the Prime Minister of Mongolia J.Erdenebat paid a visit to Japan recently.

In response, Masato Takaoka expressed his gratitude for the Mongolian Parliament Speaker for receiving him and pointed out that he is grateful for the fact that he had a chance to present his diplomatic credentials to the President of Mongolia only a week after he arrived in Mongolia.

“When you were appointed a Prime Minister of Mongolia in 2006, you started your foreign visit with Japan. During that visit, the Prime Ministers of the two countries touched upon the issue of building the international airport in Tuv province. Now, the talk has already been brought into effect and the new international Ulaanbaatar Airport will be a sign of good relations between Mongolia and Japan”.

The Japanese Ambassador requested from the Speaker to pay attention to the settlement of operational and management issue of the airport. He further underlined that Economic Partnership Agreement has been in effect since last June facilitating trade and bilateral investment between the two countries.

Afterwards, Speaker M.Enkhbold and Ambassador M.Takaoka discussed about the visit of Speaker M.Enkhbold to Japan in February within the framework of the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and Japan. Speaker M.Enkhbold said “Effectiveness is the most important issue of the visit, during which Mongolia is willing to finalize the next midterm program of the Mongolian Japanese strategic partnership.

The document will identify the bilateral cooperation tendency in the short run”. He then requested from the Japanese Ambassador to ensuring the productiveness of the visit. At the end of the meeting, Speaker M.Enkhbold expressed his readiness to and cooperate closely with the Japanese Ambassador to Mongolia.