Ulaanbaatar, February 15, 2023 /MONTSAME/. The Prime Minister of Mongolia L. Oyun-Erdene who is on an official visit to the Republic of Korea and his Korean Counterpart, Han Duck-soo hold official talks on February 15, 2023. 

In a warm and friendly atmosphere, the two Prime Ministers concluded the present stage of the relations and cooperation between our two countries and exchanged views on advancing the two countries’ cooperation in trade, investment, and economy and joint commitments in the international and regional arena. 

While underscoring the significance of this visit due to the fact that this is the first visit as the Prime Minister of Mongolia following the high-level online summit between the Presidents of the two countries held in 2021, where the bilateral relations of our two countries advanced to the Strategic Partnership, Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of the Republic of Korea for their warm welcome. 

Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene appreciated the Government of Korea for their consistent support on Mongolian democracy, reform, and sustainable development and reaffirmed his commitment to deepening our relations, anchored in our shared values of democracy, human rights, freedom, and free market, with the Republic of Korea which is our “third neighbor” in all sectors.

For his side, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo highlighted the high importance that the Government of Korea is attaching to the visit of Mongolian delegations, led by the Prime Minister of Mongolia L. Oyun-Erdene to Korea and expressed his commitment to further strengthening the mutually beneficial and complimentary Strategic Partnership relations with Mongolia by including Mongolia in its Indo-Pacific Strategy as the country with leading relations.

On the Mongolian side, mentioning the Mongolian endeavors to broaden the new airport into regional transportation and logistics hub and establish a new city and economic free zone in Khushig Valley leveraging on this new airport, under the “Vision-2050” long-term development policy and the “New Revival Policy” of the Government of Mongolia, they warmly welcomed the Korean investors to actively take part in these development projects.  In response, the Korean side expressed to expand the project scope based on the results of the “New Zuun mod - Smart city” project, which is being implemented under the framework of the “K-city Network” of Korea, in order to support Mongolian policy to establish a satellite town. 

Moreover, the Korean side favorably accepted the proposal to jointly implement a project “Conducting Feasibility Study for Establishing New, Smart and Green City in Orkhan Valley and Developing Required Documents” in connection with the decision of the Government of Mongolia to reconstruct the ancient Mongolian capital city Kharkhorum.

The sides reaffirmed that developing solid cooperation in the rare earth metals field by combining the Mongolian natural resources with the cutting-edge technologies and know-how of the Republic of Korea is of high significance to expand our two countries’ trade and economic cooperation. To that extent, the two countries agreed to set up a new committee to hold an annual regular meeting on the rare material supply chain, push for the establishment of the “Mongolia-Korea Joint Research Center for Rare Earth Metals” in Mongolia and broaden the cooperation in exploration, extraction, processing, and export of rare earth metal. The establishment of the “Memorandum of Understanding to Cooperate on Supply Chain of Rare Earth Metals” was unanimously appraised by the sides.

South Korea is a major trade partner of Mongolia, and the trade turnover between Mongolia and South Korea, which was estimated at USD 270 thousand in the early years of diplomatic relations, has reached over USD 700 million as of 2022. To eliminate constraints to the exchange of goods, and services and support bilateral trade and investment, the sides further agreed to start the dialogue on Economic Partnership Agreement based on the results of joint research. The signing of the "Joint Statement on the Start of Negotiations on the Draft Agreement on Economic Partnership between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea " is considered one of the key results of this visit.

Additionally, it was agreed upon to accelerate the renewal of the “Agreement on Investment Promotion and Mutual Protection” and to finalize the agreement in the near future to create a favorable environment for investment between our two countries.

Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene mentioned that the Mongolian government declared 2023-2025 as the “Years to visit Mongolia” and exempted foreign nationals—including South Korean citizens—from visas, hence facilitating travel to Mongolia. He also mentioned how the successful event "Welcome to Mongolia" in Seoul marked the beginning of the "Years to Visit Mongolia" from the Republic of Korea. Within the framework of the visit, the two sides decided to cooperate with the leading tourism enterprises of the Republic of Korea on the production of cultural content aimed at promoting Mongolia abroad.

It was also noted by Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene that organizing the “Mongolia-Korea Business Forum” during the visit is a key driver in fostering business ties, expanding trade, investment, and cooperation, and attracting foreign investment from Korean corporations and the tourism industry.

Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene emphasized that in recent years, the two countries’ relations have expanded in all sectors. The number of enterprises partnered with the Republic of Korea has drastically increased and more people are visiting Korea for vacation and medical purposes as well as to study every year.

Noting that the free travel of citizens of both countries is one of the most important conditions to expand the cooperation between our two countries, the South Korean government was asked to pay special attention to freeing Mongolian citizens from the visa requirements in the coming three years, easing the visa requirements for citizens who are traveling to Korea for medical reasons and in further, achieving the agreement on mutual visa-exemption in pursuit of the principle of equality.

South Korea and Mongolia agreed to establish a bilateral working group to cooperate in the direction of facilitating visa requirements for citizens and emphasized that the scope of multiple-entry visas would be expanded. It was also decided to increase the number of consular staff on both sides to expedite the issuance of visas to citizens.

The parties discussed ways to strengthen collaboration between the two nations in the areas of culture, art, education, health, and youth development as part of an effort to increase the people-to-people exchange between Mongolia and Korea. The parties noted the significance of cooperation in fighting epidemics and highly contagious diseases. The Mongolian side expressed its willingness to work with the Republic of Korea on the training and professional development of 1,000 Mongolian doctors and nurses working in the medical field. The Korean side welcomed the proposal and expressed the possibility of cooperation by implementing short- and medium-term programs.

Since the parties have been actively cooperating in the regional and international arenas, they reaffirmed their commitment to continuing to coordinate their efforts within the framework of the UN and other international organizations. The Korean side confirmed that it will continue to support our "Ulaanbaatar Dialogue" initiative, noting that the two nations will continue to contribute to and cooperate in the direction of securing peace and stability in Northeast Asia. In addition, the Korean side indicated its support for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which will take place in Mongolia in 2026.

Busan is running for the right to host the “World Expo – 2030,” and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo invited Mongolia to support Busan in this election. Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene expressed his confidence that the South Korean government will successfully host the “World Expo-2030” if Busan is selected, and Mongolia will support Busan.

During the course of the visit, the "Joint Statement to Start of Negotiations on the Draft Agreement on Economic Partnership between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea ", "Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry of Mongolia and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea on Cooperation in the Supply Chain of Rare Metals,” "Agreement between the Government of Mongolia and the Government of the Republic of Korea on Cooperation in Mitigating Climate Change," "Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development of Mongolia and the National Agency of Administrative City Building of the Republic of Korea on Cooperation in the Field of Urban Development," "Agreement between the Government of Mongolia and the Government of the Republic of Korea on the Mutual Protection of Confidential Military Information," “2023-2026 Exchange program between the Ministry of Culture of Mongolia and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea" were established respectively.