Wu Bangguo Arrives in Ulan Bator for Official Goodwill Visit to Mongolia

At the invitation of Zandaakhuu Enkhbold, chairman of the Mongolian State Great Hural, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, arrived in Ulan Bator on the morning of January 30, 2013 for his official goodwill visit to Mongolia, his second to the country in 16 years. Before the visit, Wu attended the 21st annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.

In the afternoon after his arrival, Wu held a meeting with Enkhbold in the Government Palace of Mongolia. Wu said that since China and Mongolia established diplomatic relations over 60 years ago, the bilateral relationship has always featured friendship and cooperation. In particular, recent years has seen frequent exchange of visits between high-ranking officials of the two countries, yielding tangible results in all fields of exchange and cooperation. Since China and Mongolia forged a strategic partnership in 2011, bilateral relations have entered a new stage of development. China appreciates Mongolia's long-term support on issues of Taiwan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and Tibet. China respects Mongolia's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, as well as the path of development the Mongolian people have chosen for themselves. Wu stressed that China will always view and develop relations with Mongolia from a strategic perspective, and is willing to work with Mongolia to enrich the connotation of their bilateral ties. He put forward a four-point proposal to further ties. Firstly, China and Mongolia should consolidate the political foundation of their relations through strengthening their strategic mutual trust, continuing to support each other on issues concerning their core interests, strengthening communication and coordination on major issues, and carrying out close cooperation in law enforcement and non-traditional security areas. Secondly, the two countries should deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in the three important areas of mining, infrastructure construction and finance, and push for new achievements in economic and trade cooperation, so that the economic foundation of their relations can be strengthened. Thirdly, the two countries should consolidate the social and cultural aspects of their relations by intensifying people-to-people exchanges between their youths, media and local governments in a bid to strengthen mutual understanding and consolidate their traditional friendship. Fourthly, China and Mongolia should also beef up their cooperation on multilateral issues and continue to support each other in global and regional issues to safeguard their common interests. China supports Mongolia's bid to be an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member and is willing to help Mongolia become better involved in regional cooperation in Northeast Asia and have stronger collaboration with Shanghai Cooperation Organization members.

When it comes to relations between parliaments, Wu stressed that inter-parliamentary exchanges are an important part of state-to-state relations. In recent years, China's National People's Congress and the State Great Hural of Mongolia, the two countries' parliaments, have carried out close and friendly exchanges, adding new contents and injecting new forces into the bilateral relations. In addition, Wu expressed his hopes that the two legislative bodies should further strengthen communication at all levels, share experiences in governance and democratic and legal practices, and create a legal environment conducive to pragmatic cooperation.

For his part, Enkhbold extended his warm welcome to Wu, stating that Wu's visit will have an important and far-reaching impact on the relations between the two parliaments as well as the two countries. He said that the Mongolian people and the Chinese people enjoy profound traditional friendship. Developing friendly and good neighborly relations with China has been the common stance and strategic choice of the Mongolian government and Parliament. The State Great Hural of Mongolia is ready to strengthen friendly relations with the National People's Congress of China, push forward cooperation with China in the fields of politics, trade and economy, and humanity, as well as on global and regional issues, and contribute to the comprehensive development of China-Mongolia relations.

After the end of their meeting, Wu and Enkhbold signed the Memorandum of Cooperation between the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and the State Great Hural of Mongolia. They also attended the signing ceremony of agreements in economic and technology cooperation between the two governments.