Sushma Swaraj to visit Mongolia after talks in China

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, April 19

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will pay a visit to Mongolia from April 25 to 26. This comes 42 years since the last visit of an Indian Foreign Minister to Mongolia. 

Narendra Modi was the first ever India Prime Minister to visit Mongolia in 2015. India had then extended a line of credit to the tune of $1 billion.

Swaraj's Mongolia stop over will happen on her way back from China where she will participate in the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) Foreign Ministers' meet from April 21 to 24 as well as hold dialogue with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on its sidelines. 

Strategic partner India is considered by Mongols as counter-weight to their neighbours, including China. Interestingly, President Khaltmaa Batulga won elections in July last year on an anti-China rhetoric and India revitalising ties with Mongolia is not without geostrategic significance for Beijing.

Swaraj on her first visit to Mongolia will hold formal talks with her counterpart Damdin Tsogtbaatar. Swaraj and Tsogtbaatar will co-chair the 6th round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee (IMJCC) meeting. The last round was held in Delhi in 2016. A range of issues, including political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties are expected to be discussed in talks. 

During her visit, Swaraj will also deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula birth centenary celebrations in capital Ulaanbaatar.

"This  commemorates the birth anniversary of late venerable Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a highly revered Buddhist leader and monk from Ladakh and a former Ambassador of India to Mongolia. Bakula Rinpoche as the longest serving Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, made seminal contribution to promotion of India-Mongolia ties," said a Ministry of External Affairs release.