FM AT 2ND MEETING ON ASIA-EUROPE TRANSPORT LINKS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Bold signed some documents within his participation in the Second ministerial meeting on the Euro-Asian Transport Links in Geneva Tuesday. Mr Bold inked a joint statement on Future Development of Euro-Asian Transport Links and a joint declaration on the Euro-Asian Rail Transport and Unified Railway Law. The joint statement puts forward some goals such as contributing to expanding of the transport cooperation within the Almaty Programme of Action for the landlocked developing countries, abolishing obstacles to the Europe-Asia transport network in several phases, creating nice conditions for financing long-term programmes and projects on developing infrastructure for the Europe-Asia transport network, and making an effective mechanism of monitoring these programmes and projects' implementation. Mongolia considers that these goals are vital for her in terms of developing the transportation sector, drilling products and goods to the European market, widening the transport cooperation. The joint declaration on the Euro-Asian Rail Transport and Unified Railway Law highlights a high cost of railway transport because the railways of Asia and Europe are regulated by different laws and legal documents, and so seeks some ways to solve the problems, such as working out a unified rule to be valid in both Asian and European countries for rendering support to them in transit transport and introducing the electronic declaration form at railway transportation. It is thought that this document will be useful for Mongolia in refining the outer legal environment for the Mongolian railway development, in connecting to railways of other countries, and in opening ways to Europe. The Minister Mr Bold held a meeting with his counterpart of Estonia Mr Urmas Paet. They exchanged views on the bilateral issues. Mr Paet was invited to the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies (CoD). He said he will participate in this Conference and then invited the Mongolian FM to Estonia. After this, the Foreign Minister met with Mr Gyan Chandra Acharya, the UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. They shared views on preparation for UN high-level meeting. Mr Chandra Acharya said the UN highly speaks Mongolia's efforts to protect interests of landlocked developing countries, and promised to support activities of the International Think-Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries. B.Khuder