This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mongolia joining the UN. It now has diplomatic relations with 150 other member countries. President Ts. Elbegdorj has suggested setting up relations with more countries to observe the anniversary.

The Government meeting on July 20 discussed establishing diplomatic relations with Andorra, Gambia, Honduras, Nauru, Palau, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, and decided to forward the issue to the Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy for further discussion.

The first country to set up diplomatic relations was Russia in 1921 and the second, North Korea in 1948. India was the first country outside the then Soviet bloc to establish relations, in 1955. The most recent country to have such relations was the Dominican Republic in 2010.