On the sidelines of an official visit to the European Parliament, President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj held a meeting with the President of the European Parliament Mr. Martin Schulz and hosted a joint press statement.

President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz noted: “Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen. Once again I officially welcome you, Mr. President of Mongolia to the European Parliament. Mr. President, thank you very much for your great speech to the European Parliament. All the members of the European Parliament are deeply impressed by your speech and messages of hope, cooperation, fighting for values, defending democracy, freedom of speech, pluralistic society, open minded society looking on the basis of a long historical tradition of your country and contributing the cultural development. But on the basis of the past experience, your country implements a forward looking political strategy. This is an enormous achievement.

I want to thank not only for your speech, I want also to answer your call “Friends, let us cooperate and work together for all these values”. Yes, let us work together, especially looking to the ASEM Summit in 2016. Under the preparation of this important meeting of the world regions, we have to take important decision of the future generations.

I accept this invitation and would like to underline how happy we are that the President of Mongolia – a democratic country, addressed his speech to the representatives of 507 million Europeans of 28 sovereign countries. This is a unique place because we adopt a binding law for more than 500 million citizens from 28 countries. I think your speech has encouraged us and this will give great impetus to the deepening of bilateral relations between the European Parliament and Mongolia”.

President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj noted: “Thank you Mr. President. This is really great honor to address the plenary of the European Parliament with 751 members from the 28 nations. It is really unimaginable in Asia, in our part of world. I call it a premier invention for advancing democracy peace and harmony. It is the biggest representative in democratic institution human kind ever created on the earth. This is the European Parliament.

I am really happy to represent my nation and speak on the achievements of our country. It was really great honor to be here. This was a great encouragement for us. Mongolians have watched my speech through the livestream and they are really excited.

We are doing good thing in our part of world. Of course having demonstrations and elections is one thing. But maintaining and building those institutions were difficult. In this regard, the European Union, the European Parliament and its member states have undoubtedly supported our country from the beginning. In 1990s, when we entered into a new era we had a great friend – the European Union and European states. It gave us great encouragement. Now there is a new stage of cooperation. We have a great economic potential. One time Mongolia was the fastest growing economy in the world, but now we are experiencing a strong slowdown. Nevertheless, our economy shows 5-6 percent of growth.

We have something to offer. You have great technology and expertise. There are huge opportunities for your companies to invest Mongolia.

I am really happy that Mongolia will host the ASEM Summit next year. I have invited the President of the European Parliament Mr. Martin Schulz to attend the Meeting and to tell his story of success and challenges to our audience. It will give us a great insight and encouragement. We are working in many fields with great success, such as political, social, educational, energy, environmental and other.

We have a Partnership cooperation agreement with the European Union and it will enhance the mutual cooperation. Thank you for this great opportunity. This is really great honor for us. It is a great recognition what we have achieved in 25 years through the hard work for democracy, for advancing the rule of law, human rights, openness and transparency in our part of world. This is our value. We have to respect the human dignity and we have to give more opportunities to our people. We are accounting on your help and support. Thank you”.