Rajnath Singh, the first Indian defence minister to visit Mongolia, met President U.Khurelsukh, and discussed ways to further deepen the multifaceted strategic partnership between the two countries.

Mr Singh’s visit to Mongolia on 5-7 September is the first-ever tour to the East Asian country by an Indian Defence Minister.

It said India and Mongolia share a strategic partnership and defence is a key pillar of this partnership.

The bilateral defence engagements with Mongolia have been expanding over a period of time to include wide-ranging contacts between the two countries, including joint working group meetings, military-to-military exchanges and capacity building and training programmes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Mongolia in May 2015, bringing a renewed vigour to the ties in diverse areas including defence and security.

During the visit, India announced a USD 1 billion line of credit to Mongolia for infrastructure development and upgraded their ties to the strategic partnership. Joint India-Mongolia military exercise ‘Nomadic Elephant’ is held annually.

The last two editions of the exercise were held at Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) in September 2018 and in October 2019 in Himachal Pradesh.