The Mongolian embassy in Washington organized a conference at the Library of Congress on January 30 to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the United States.

The U.S. State Department, NGOs, scholars, researchers, former American diplomats who served in Mongolia, employees of the Mongolian embassy in Washington, and several Mongolians took part in the conference.

On display was an exhibit of documents, books, and journals relating to Mongolian history from the library’s Asian collection.

State Department Assistant Secretary of Culture and Public Relations Ann Stock opened the conference. She expressed her satisfaction with bilateral collaboration in the cultural and humanitarian spheres. She also passed along greetings from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Kh.Bekhbat, Mongolia’s ambassador of to the U.S., gave a speech. He emphasized that bilateral relations and cooperation have developed successfully in many fields over the past 25 years. He also noted that the U.S. supported and helped Mongolia during the country’s difficult transition to democracy and a free-market system. Kh.Bekhbat said the government and people of Mongolia are grateful for this help.

Jonathon Addleton, the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia, talked about his recently published book, “The most effective factors to contribute to Mongolian development: USA-Mongolia diplomatic relations 1987-2012.” He noted that, while official relations between the two nations were established 25 years ago, informal relations began 150 years ago.

Alicia Campi, Mongol scholar and president of the Mongolia Society in the U.S., presented a copy of her book about Mongolia’s political relations between 1915 and 1927 to the National Library of Mongolia.