1: Can you tell us something about your previous career in diplomatic service please.

I have been working in the Mongolian foreign service for more than three decades. My foreign assignments include Bangkok, Ottawa, and Washington DC where I served as the Deputy Head of Mission. Before being appointed as the Ambassador of Mongolia to the Czech Republic by the President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh of Mongolia, I was the Director General of the Department of the Americas, the Middle East and Africa at the Mongolian MFA.

2: How long are you already posted in Prague and how long will you still stay?

Already a year and half. It has been a period of time to get know the country and people more, and find focus areas on the bilateral cooperation, which has potential to grow.  Approximately two and half years to stay.

3: Which regions and cities have you already visited in Czech Republic?

I have been to many regions and cities to meet local authorities and my fellow Mongolians. The companies and factories where they work too. I have been to Brno, Pardubice, Ceska Lipa, Plzen, Hradec Kralove where we have the Honorary Consulate of Mongolia. Mr. Pavel Reihrt is our Honorary Consul. I did not miss going to the famous Karlovy Vary.

4: What is your favorite place in Prague?

It seems there are many places or almost all places in Prague have reasons to visit and stories to tell. Prague Zoo is one of my favorite places to mention here  for two reasons. First one is that I keep a  precios memory about visiting Prague Zoo almost 40 years back as a teenager from a small viilage in Mongolia. I was awarded a ticket to spend my summer holidays in an International camp in Czechoslovakia in 1983. We spent a week in Prague and of course, visited Prague Zoo.

Second one is that the Prague Zoo is implementing very important project of re-introducing Takhi or Przewalski’s horse into the Mongolian wilderness. This project allows once almost extinct takhi in native Mongolia to wander again in the wild there. In 10 years, 34 air- transported takhi now increases to over 400.

5: What are the main topics in the relationships between Mongolia and the Czech Republic?

Our bilateral ties are rich and have big potential to grow and we enjoy a long-lasting friendship through our people’s bond and cooperation. The history of more than seven decades of diplomatic relations is a strong foundation for our countries‘ common values.

Czechia is one of our closest partners in the EU. Democratic values such as freedom, respect for human rights, and rule of law are shared between our nations.

The traditionally friendly relations between Mongolia and the Czech Republic are developing in many areas of mutual interest, such as construction, mining, infrastructure, environmental protection, education, and culture.

6: Czechs have one of the widest history of sponsoring Mongolia of all countries, what are the most well-known projects?

Mongolians know that the Czechoslovakian geologists first discovered Erdenet copper mine deposits, built the First central hospital of Mongolia, a shoe factory in Ulaanbaatar, and cement factory in Darkhan.

Czechia provided USD50 million in development assistance to Mongolia between 1996-2017. I would like to highlight two very successful projects.

We thank the Czech Republic for its significant contribution to reintroducing the Przewalski’s horses back to Mongolia. By the 1960s, Przewalski’s horses were extinct in the wild. Extraordinary credit for the preservation of the Przewalski’s horse goes to Prague Zoo.

In 2015-2017, the Czech Development Agency implemented the project “Development of forests and the gene pool of local forest tree ecotypes in Mongolia” worth about 1 million US dollars, in Darkhan, Sharyn gol in cooperation with experts from the Czech Institute for Forest Management. It is a project of propagation of trees using a container tree nursery with the Patrick advanced technology from the Czech Republic. The nursery has the capacity to propagate 1 million trees per year.

7: What are you working on now?

As you know my Foreign Minister has had a successful visit to the Czech Republic and we start working on the follow-ups.

Education has become a priority on my agenda. Last month, Mr. Jaroslav Miller, Czech Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, and Youth, visited Mongolia and signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Promoting Cooperation in Implementing the scholarship program between the Ministry of Education and Science of Mongolia and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. Mongolian students will study in Czech’s top Universities under the auspices of the Mongolian President’s Scholarship program.

Next is to promote Mongolia and Mongolian tourism. Mongolia declared 2023-2025 as  Years to Visit Mongolia. Citizens of the EU member countries enjoy visa free travel to Mongolia for purposes of tourism, participating in sports and cultural events, making movies and contents and transiting in Mongolia. We invite our Czech friends to visit Mongolia and explore our beautiful country. We are in high expectation that one of Mongolia’s private air companies would implement a direct flight between Ulaanbaatar and Prague. The two Governments signed the Air service agreement in 2017.

Mongolia and Czechia will expand their cooperation in the scientific sector. The President of the Science Academy and Director of the Institute of Paleontology of Mongolia visited Czechia. The Czech National Museum and our Institute of Paleontology will work in paleontology. Mongolian Gobi is home for fossil remains of dinosaurs and our Paleontological Institution has a rich collection. The Institute displayed its exhibits of dinosaur fossils in more than 70 cities around the world and the last one was at the Dinosaur Expo 2019 in Tokyo.

Broadening trade and economic cooperation is key in our cooperation. The Joint Inter-Governmental Commission is an important mechanism for bilateral dialogue to expand our trade, economic and investment cooperation. We prepare to host the 8th meeting of the Commission in Ulaanbaatar in the third quarter of this year.

Mongolia-Czech annual business forum will also take place in Ulaanbaatar.

8: What are Mongolia’s interests in Czechia?

There is a great opportunity for cooperation between our two countries by utilizing Czech advanced equipment and technologies to process Mongolian natural and agricultural resources and produce final products for domestic use and export to EU.

We have been actively working to expand our transport connectivity and logistics network as well as transit capacities. In this connection, 2018, we have proposed  to conclude the Intergovernmental Agreement on Road Transportation with number of European countries, of course including Czechia.

Currently, Mongolia signed Agreement on International Road Transport with Ukraine, Turkey, Belarus, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia and with Poland recently during President Duda’s visit to Mongolia. we are also concluding such agreement with Germany, Italy, Austria and Slovakia.

Therefore, intensifying our talks with Czechia to conclude the proposed agreement has been high on my Minister’s agenda during her recent visit.

Czech researchers and scientists have been actively contributing to forest research and forest management improvement in Mongolia. We would encourage them to continue their work within the “Billion Trees” national movement and the “Forest Partnership” of the European Union.

Our two countries have a long history of cooperation in the field of mining. A team of geologists from the Czechoslovakia and Mongolia discovered the Erdenet copper deposit and estimated its’ reserves for the first time in 1960s. During my Minister’s visit, the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of minerals was signed.

9: How many Mongolians live in CZ, what are their main activities and exports?

As of now 12 thousand Mongolians living in Czechia. They are not only the largest by numbers in Europe but very lively community. There are 3,000 children are living with their parents, about  half of them attending  secondary schools and about 90 students are studying in Czech Universities.

Our people work in leading tech and heavy industries, rail technology, machinery and motorboat companies, such as Bombardier Transportation, Foxconn, Škoda, MEGATECH Industries Brno, Gestamp, MP Krasno and others.

The Social Security Agreement between Mongolia and Czech entered into force in March 2023. Thus, citizens of both countries are now able to transfer their pensions as well as the agreement is social security assurance for the people.

10: How would you compare Czechs and Mongolians?

Looking into the fact that Czechia hosts the largest Mongolian community in the country tells that there is a common ground between our two nations to be closer.  In general, we are freedom loving and trustworthy people.

11: How do you deal with yours neighbours?

As you know that  the world’s two largest countries are Mongolia’s neighbours. Our border length with China is over 4700 km and with Russia over 3500 km. Both borders are secured by the bilateral agreements. Mongolia has strategic partnership agreements with both nations. Our foreign policy documents spitulate Mongolia will maintain balanced equally important partners. We have a centuries long history of being neighbours.