A delegation headed by the director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia worked in Beijing from 17^th to 19^th February, where it met the Deputy Chinese Minister of Transport and the director of Civil Aviation Administration, Mr Feng Zhenglin together with other officials.

During the meeting, the issue of some Chinese flights crossing Mongolian airspace was resolved. This has brought Mongolian and Chinese transportation relations to a new level. In addition, this can be seen as a mark of Chinese estimation for Mongolian aviation security and navigation systems.

China is the longest air-bordered neighbor of Mongolia; the two countries share six “air gates”. During the meetings in Beijing, the two sides discussed improving the usage of these six air gates and to study the opening of the new 7^th Mongolian-Chinese air gate.

In addition, on 17^th February, the memorandum was signed to procure a “Harbin” Y-12 twin-engine turboprop from the AVIC International Aero Development Corporation, in order to conduct trial flights in Mongolia. As part of the memorandum a study will me made of financing the Y-12 plane using a Chinese free grant.

One of the interesting issues discussed during the Beijing aviation meeting was the offer to introduce a Silk Road of the Air using Mongolian airspace. Currently, discussion on this proposal is at an unofficial level.