Mongolian president Khaltmaagiin Battulga will arrive on a five-day state visit to India on September 19. This is the first state visit by a Mongolian president in the last ten years. Among the various events he will participate in will be an India-Mongolia Business Forum in New Delhi.
Though India was among the first countries outside the Soviet Bloc to establish diplomatic ties with Mongolia in 1955, there hasn't been much progress in the bilaterals. Even something as simple as connectivity remains a problem. Narendra Modi visited Mongolia in 2015, the first prime minister from India to ever visit. Though that was a high optic visit, the follow-ups to it didn't take forward the bilateral relationship the way one would have expected.
While the Indian government got busy in a slew of international developments— tensions with neighbour Pakistan, and Maldives, and a high voltage stand off with China over Doklam, the China factor loomed in another form, too. A year after Modi's trip, the Dalai Lama visited Mongolia which made China see red. Mongolia subsequently issued a statement saying it supported the One CHina outlook, and that Tibet was an inseparable part of China. These developments slowed down the impetus in the bilateral with India, though then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj did visit Mongolia in 2018 to bring the relationship back on track. Then home minister Rajnath Singh had also visited Ulaanbaatar on an official visit to take forward the relation.
India is supporting the building of a refinery in Mongolia through a one billion dollar Line of Credit which was extended during Modi's visit. “The India - Mongolia Strategic Partnership is based on the ideals of freedom and democracy and on a strong foundation of our shared Buddhist heritage,'' said the ministry of external affairs in a press note.