AMBASSADOR OF CANADA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga received letter of credence from the newly accredited Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Mongolia David William Sproule on Monday.
After accepting the credentials, President Battulga received Ambassador David Sproule for a bilateral meeting.
At the beginning, Mr. Sproule highlighted that Ulaanbaatar and Ottawa are similar in the way that both cities are two of the coldest capital cities in the world.
President Battulga underlined, “Canada is a mining country, and is, especially, excellent in terms of natural rehabilitation,” and expressed interest in cooperating in rehabilitation. He also mentioned that bilateral trade turnover is not on satisfactory level.
Ambassador Sproule assured Mongolia and Canada are capable of promoting cooperation in mining and highlighted that the Agreement Between Canada and Mongolia for the Promotion and Protection of Investments which entered into force earlier this year is expected to have a great effect on the cooperation of two countries.
Noting that agriculture is a key economic sector for Mongolia, President of Mongolia Kh.Battulga said that Mongolia is running land-farming in only 1.0 percent of its territory, which is a relatively small number. While making suggestion about the two countries’ potential cooperation in agriculture, he went on to share his interest in developing close cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry of Canada. “Only 8.0 percent of Mongolia’s territory is covered by forests. We would like to increase the size of forest areas through bringing Canada’s forestry practices to Mongolia,” he said.
At the end of the meeting, the Ambassador pledged to put all his efforts in strengthening the bilateral ties. President Battulga wished success in the works of the Canadian embassy.
Present at the ceremony were, Chief of Staff of the Office of the President Z.Enkhbold and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs B.Battsetseg, along with related officials.