Vietnamese top leader arrives in Ulaanbaatar, beginning state visit to Mongolia

The Vietnamese leader was greeted at the airport by Mongolian Minister of Foreign Affairs Batmunkh Battsetseg, Mongolian Ambassador to Vietnam Jigjee Sereejav, and other officials of the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy in the country.

During his visit, Lam and senior leaders of Mongolia are scheduled to discuss major orientations and solutions to further strengthen bilateral political trust and cooperation in areas of mutual priorities, especially politics, diplomacy, economy, trade, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

Mongolia was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, on Nov. 17, 1954, while Vietnam was the first Southeast Asian country with which Mongolia established diplomatic relations.

Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh paid a state visit to Vietnam in November last year.

In terms of economy, before 1990, annual two-way trade was only about 2 million RUB equivalent ($21,211 at current exchange rate). In 1996, the two sides signed a bilateral trade agreement, which helped push two-way trade to $6 million in 2008. The figure rose to more than $120 million in 2023, and $65.5 million in the first seven months of 2024. The two countries have regularly maintained the meeting mechanism of the Intergovernmental Committee on Trade, Economy and Science and Technology. To date, 18 meetings of the committee have been held.

Progress has been seen in collaboration in culture, tourism, education and people-to-people exchange. The two sides signed the agreement on visa exemption for each other’s citizens holding ordinary passports in November 2013, creating more favorable conditions for people-to-people exchange activities.