Transcript of Special briefing by MEA on State visit of President of Mongolia to India (October 14, 2025)
India - Ministry of External Affairs
October 14, 2025
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to this special press briefing by Secretary (East) Shri P. Kumaran. This briefing is on the ongoing State Visit of the President of Mongolia.
We also have with us for this briefing Shri Sujith Ghosh, Joint Secretary, who looks after East Asia Division in the Ministry of External Affairs. With that, I turn over the floor and the mic to Secretary (East) for his initial remarks.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East):Thank you, Randhir. Good afternoon, dear friends. My apologies for the delay. We just had a sequence of meetings. I could not come in earlier. My appreciation and thanks for you all waiting until we could make it here.
As you are aware, the President of Mongolia H.E. Mr. Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, is on a State Visit to India from 13th to 16th October 2025. This is his first visit to India in his capacity as President of Mongolia. And it takes place at a particularly meaningful moment as India and Mongolia commemorate 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. And we also mark 10 years of Our Strategic Partnership this year.
President Khurelsukh is accompanied by a large delegation comprising senior Cabinet Ministers, members of Parliament, senior officials and also cultural representatives. His visit reflects the depth of the political relationship and the importance that both sides attach to this strategic partnership anchored in ancient civilizational ties, shared Buddhist heritage, democratic values and a deep sense of mutual trust.
The President arrived in New Delhi yesterday and was accorded a Guard of Honor and a ceremonial welcome at the Air Force Station Palam. External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar called on President Khurelsukh and reviewed our bilateral ties ahead of the Leaders Meeting. This morning, the visiting President paid homage at Rajghat, laying a wreath at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi.
At Hyderabad House, President Khurelsukh held restricted and delegation level discussions with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The discussions were warm, wide ranging and forward looking, covering strategic and development partnership, cultural ties, trade, education, critical minerals, renewable energy, and people to people exchanges. This is their first official meeting and the leaders developed a close personal rapport during the talks.
In a display of personal connect, the two leaders jointly planted a tree in the name of President Khurelsukh's late mother at Hyderabad House. This special gesture symbolized the common threads between Prime Minister Modi's Ek Ped Ma Ke Naam initiative and President Khurelsukh's One Billion Trees campaign and our shared commitment to environmental sustainability.
The two leaders jointly released commemorative postal stamps marking the 70th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. We also adopted a Joint Statement on strengthening the strategic partnership, charting a shared vision for future engagement including resilient supply chains and critical minerals. Mongolia reiterated its support for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council and also for India's candidature as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2028-29. Mongolia also signed the framework agreement of the international Big Cat Alliance reflecting our shared commitment to conservation.
The announcement of the appointment of a resident defense attaché in Ulaanbaatar, fulfilling a long-standing Mongolian request, and underscoring the growing defense partnership. India also announced that all e-visas to Mongolian nationals would be issued on a gratis basis, building on the existing gratis paper visa regime and deepening people-to-people ties.
As a goodwill gesture towards the spiritual fulfillment of our Mongolian brothers and sisters, India will be sending the holy relics of Arhant Maudgalyayana and Arhant Sariputra to Mongolia in 2026 following the historic exposition of Kapilavastu relics in 2022.
Other key announcements include the deputation of a Sanskrit teacher to Gandan Monastery for one year to enhance monastic Sanskrit capacity; launch of an ICCR youth orientation trip under which eight Mongolian students and accompanying faculty will visit India; and provision of an additional 70 ITEC slots for Mongolian nationals as a goodwill gesture to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
Ten MOUs were signed. The Joint Statement will list out the MOUs. They were in the area of cultural exchange, immigration cooperation, promotion of cooperatives, humanitarian aid, geology and mineral resources, quick impact projects, yoga and also renovation of the Bogd Khan Palace. I suggest that you take a look at the full list in our Joint Statement.
President Khurelsukh also visited Parliament House where he toured the building along with the Hon'ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Shri Om Birla. Their interaction highlighted the close democratic and parliamentary connect between India and Mongolia, both vibrant democracies committed to rule of law and representative governance. President Khurelsukh also met Honourable Vice President Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan, Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh and Health Minister Shri J.P. Nadda, and he will be visiting the National Museum, Akshardham Temple and Humayun's tomb tomorrow.
Later today, President Khurelsukh will call on the Hon'ble President of India, Smt Draupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. A state banquet will be hosted in his honor, underscoring the warmth and high regard that India holds for its relationship with Mongolia.
President Khurelsukh's visit has yielded substantive outcomes, both symbolic and practical. It has reaffirmed the deep-rooted friendship between India and Mongolia, strengthened our strategic partnership and laid a strong foundation for closer collaboration across a wide range of sectors in the years to come.
I think I'll stop here and please shoot if you have any questions. Thank you.
Huma Siddiqui, Stratnews Global: Sir I am Huma Siddiqui from Stratnews Global. I have two questions. One, the Prime Minister talked about defense and security. That, during talks they discussed this. If you can elaborate, what about the defense and security? what is it that they are looking for?
And in the agriculture sector, what is India offering to them in terms of farming or dairy products?
Sidhant, WION: Sidhant from WION. Continuing the same question, the Prime Minister said that India will help in capacity building of the border forces. So if you can elaborate, what's the process like, how many people India is going to help in capacity building?
Krishna Mohan Sharma, Bharat Express: Sir, Krishna Mohan Sharma, Bharat Express se. Mera ek sawal ye hai ki cultural exchange ke tahat wahan se saat student aayenge aur unki faculty aayegi. hamare yaha se kitne bache jayenge aur kitne faculty jayenge?
[Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi] Sir, this is Krishmohan Sharma from Bharat Express. My question is — under the cultural exchange program, seven students and their faculty will be coming from there. How many students and faculty members will be going from our side?
Kadambini Sharma, Independent Journalist: Kadambini Sharma, Independent Journalist. There was a mention during the Press Statements about direct flights between India and Mongolia. Can you shed some more light on that?
Keshav Padmanabhan, ThePrint: Thank you, Sir. Keshav Padmanabhan from ThePrint. We've signed an MoU with Mongolia ... a line of credit for about $1.7 billion in an oil refinery of which phase one has been completed. I wanted to check whether there has been any discussions for further such projects, given that I think this is India's single largest project using $1.7 billion.
And added to that, can you tell us a little bit about what was discussed with regards to critical minerals, renewable energies and this portion that you had mentioned that was discussed between the two leaders in the morning? Thank you.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Let me start with defense cooperation. Defense cooperation with Mongolia is basically composed of two or three initiatives.
One is joint exercises. We do a joint exercise called Nomadic Elephant and another one called Khan Quest with Mongolia. And the Mongolians appreciate the opportunity to train with us. And the Defense Minister ... I was just in the meeting when the Defense Minister called on the President. They are interested and they see a lot of benefits of training with us. So, they would like us to continue with existing programs and also offer more support in terms of training. We do send our trainers there as part of our joint exercise initiatives, and who stay with them and train their officers for some time. So, that is something they see value in. We will be doing more of that.
We also provide some kinds of equipment as part of our grant assistance to Mongolia. And we propose to continue that in the coming years. One big initiative that we took in the past was offering them cyber security training. We set up a cyber security training centre for their armed forces. The President thanked both the Prime Minister and Raksha Mantri for the benefits that flow from that centre, and they wish to upgrade and continue that kind of support. So, these are basically the main kind of partnerships that we have in Defense Cooperation. Raksha Mantri told them that we would be happy to continue existing programs, and also look at new proposals that come from the Mongolian side for any new ideas for collaboration.
Agriculture. As you know, Mongolia has a large area compared to its population. 1.5 million square kilometers for a population of just about 3.5 million. A lot of it is grassland. They are planning to develop large plantations. In fact, if you fly into Ulaanbaatar, you can see these large fields coming up outside Ulaanbaatar. There are areas where it is possible for us to collaborate, especially precision agriculture, modern techniques, using digital platforms for agriculture, etc. These are all areas that we can potentially offer for collaborating with them in the area of agriculture.
In fact, in a somewhat connected area, President Khurelsukh also offered that since Mongolia produces a lot of high-quality wool, cashmere wool, he said India could support them in developing that industry; value-adding and producing products for consumption in both markets and also for exports to third markets. So, it is something that sounds exciting and we will be having people look at it in greater detail and see how we can take it forward.
Capacity building of border forces. Somewhat similar to what I mentioned in the area of defense. I think, Mongolia also sees benefit in working with us on cooperating in the area of drones and usage of drones, etc. It is something that we are talking about to see what kind of cooperation is possible. In addition to capacity building, some of the defense ITEC slots that Mongolia uses is also for capacity building of border forces.
Cultural exchange. We have signed a cultural exchange programme as part of the MoU signed today. And, I think we will be developing the programme further as per the areas identified in the programme. What I said in my opening remarks was that we will have an ICCR youth orientation trip which will allow Mongolian students to come here. We are still not clear about how many of our students are going.
Wo detail abhi hamare paas available nahi hai. Jab cultural exchange programs ke tahat details discuss honge us time mein decide hoga kitne students hamare jayenge.
[Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi] That information is not available with us right now. The number of students going from our side will be decided when the details of the cultural exchange program are discussed.
Direct flights. There is interest on the Mongolian side to try and have direct flights between Mongolia and India. One issue that seems to be holding it back is the viability of the operations. Today, President Khurelsukh mentioned to Prime Minister Modi that there is a Mongolian carrier that is interested in operating chartered flights to India. So, it was just a preliminary kind of information that was provided. We will be looking at the destinations and further details about how to take it forward. We are hoping that the fact that we have gratis e-visas for Mongolian citizens, and the fact that Mongolians are also facilitating visas for us on a gratis basis, we should be having increasingly better viability for such operations. But it is still early days. We will see how it goes.
In fact, the LOC of 1.7 billion that you mentioned, it is India's largest LOC supported project, the Mongolia oil refinery. And the cost was originally at 1.2 billion. There were some delays initially because of COVID and the fact that the construction season in Mongolia is limited to a few months. Otherwise, in peak winter, the temperatures touch about minus 30, minus 35. Everything shuts down. It is not possible to do any outdoor construction activity.
I just visited the refinery construction site last month. It is coming up very well. Almost all the civil work is over. The refinery equipment is being manufactured in India, and will be shipped to Mongolia. It seems to be on track and we expect that by 2028, the refinery should be in operation. One of the main reasons why it is important for us to have this completed by 2028 is that the Mongolians attach a lot of importance to this project. The reason is that they want to use their own crude, which is mostly exported now, to be fed into this refinery so that they can be as energy independent as possible. That is something we want to support and we hope to see this through by 2028.
Critical minerals and renewable energy were the last two points that you wanted me to speak on. Mongolia has large reserves of coking coal. It is something that is useful for the steel industry. And India buys coking coal from a variety of partners including Canada, Indonesia, Australia etc. Mongolia offers itself as a potential partner for this. The difficulty of course happens to be the fact that Mongolia is landlocked and depends on ports and neighboring countries to be able to ship out the coal. Most of their coal is currently exported to China.
If India is to buy coking coal from Mongolia, it will have to be either through Tianjin port in China or through Vladivostok in Russia. The economics need to be figured out. I understand that the Russian option is more expensive than the Chinese option. So, we are talking to the Russians and the Mongolians to see what kind of arrangements can be made to bring Mongolian coal through the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok and see how exactly the economics plays out.
Mongolia also has a few other minerals of interest to us including copper, gold, iron, zinc and recently they have also unearthed uranium reserves. They have just signed a big 1 million tonne per annum deal with France for unearthing and processing uranium. We have also offered our interest in partnering with Mongolia for uranium. We will be taking up the dialogue in the coming months.
Renewable energy, what we understand is that President Khurelsukh told Prime Minister that in the southern parts of Mongolia, they get about 230 days of good sunlight. Mongolia prides itself as the land of the eternal blue skies, very less pollution, very small population to support and therefore, large empty space for solar panel fields to be set up. And therefore, it does offer itself as a good partner for renewable energy. They are committing to join the International Solar Alliance. Just signed the framework agreement for the ISA. So, we hope to be able to partner with them and see how to take it forward.
Thank you.
Ileana, TASS News Agency: Good afternoon. Ileana from TASS News Agency. My question is actually on the topic which you just mentioned on raw materials in Mongolia for India. And specifically on logistics. So, as you said, there are two options of importing by India from Mongolia, through Chinese port and through Russian port Vladivostok. So, what is more favorable for India?
And, there were reports in Mongolian media that during this visit of the President of Mongolia to India, memorandum of understanding will be signed on geology and exploration. So, was it signed or not? Because I'm particularly worried about this because as media reported, there was a clause that import of these raw materials will go through Russian port Vladivostok. So, was it signed? So, if there is this clause about Russian port, will it improve delivery? importing from Russian ports?
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Thank you. Yes, there was an MoU signed on geology and exploration. I think what that essentially means is that for the 1.7 billion dollar Mongol oil refinery, the Mongol side wants to try and find crude oil that can support them in the future. Currently, most of Mongolia's crude is exported to China, and refined products are imported from Russia. So, to support the operations of the refinery, they want to try and explore more oil and gas. I mean, for the refinery, we are concerned with oil. So, they want to try and explore more, do more prospecting. And they want India also to try and invest in exploration and prospecting for oil in Mongolia. That is the reason why exploration was offered as a potential area of cooperation.
In terms of equipment that are required, we are okay to explore any option, whichever works out to be economical for us, whether it is Tianjin or Vladivostok. We will take either of the options, probably both. And it is just the economics. I believe Russia and Mongolia have an arrangement where Russia offers discounted transport charges to Mongolia, if Vladivostok is used as an option for transport, and also for using the Trans-Siberian Railway. I believe the western part of the Trans-Siberian Railway has fairly high load on the railway line, whereas, the eastern part is not so heavily loaded, and therefore some discount is offered.
So, we are also trying to get more details to see if we can take advantage of the discount arrangement that is available between Mongolia and Russia. Whereas, for taking equipment, civil and mechanical, electrical equipment, etc., to the refinery project, our contractors rely on Tianjin, which is the main option currently. They take it to the Mongolian border and then drive it into Mongolia.
So, we are willing to look at both options, whichever works for us in terms of convenience and economics, we will take both.
Ileana, TASS News Agency: (inaudible)
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): We are looking at the breakdown of the components for economics to see how exactly it works out.
Keshav Padmanabhan, ThePrint: Thank you for allowing me a follow-up. The port of Vladivostok is part of the Eastern Maritime Corridor that has been in discussions. I just wanted to check, are you looking at building Mongolia as a part of the Eastern Maritime Corridor? How serious are the discussions to look at the kind of logistics from Central Asia via this corridor? Because this is a project that India and Russia have been pushing.
In addition to that, as you mentioned quick impact projects. How many projects are in the pipeline or what was discussed with regards to these quick impact projects worth less than $50,000 a project? Thank you.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): These are all good ideas. We still have not gotten to the stage where we bring Mongolia into the Eastern Corridor. Right now, I think I have only heard of the Chennai-Vladivostok Corridor. At some point, it does offer itself as an option for Mongolia to take advantage of, but we will potentially take it up with the Mongol side and hope that we can take it forward.
Quick impact projects. We do a number of them in other partners in our neighborhood, and also in Southeast Asia. But, before we undertake quick impact projects, we always look for an MoU which clarifies to both sides what are their obligations in terms of facilitating these projects. So, the MOU that was signed today makes it clear as to what are the responsibilities of both sides.
Basically, small community development projects in the range of about US$50,000 per project. And the objective is mainly for creating livelihoods, strengthening social infrastructure and also enhancing economic resilience for local communities. These are broadly the objectives of such small QIP projects.
The Mongol side has said that because their communities are distributed very widely in their vast land area, many communities are remote, some of them are nomadic, and they would be happy with these small projects because it fits them very neatly. So, we will be examining specific project proposals in the coming months. And this MOU will be the basis for processing such projects and supporting them.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Thank you sir, with that we come to the close of this Press Conference. Thank you very much for your presence.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Thank you and our apologies once again for keeping you waiting for a long time. Thank you.
New Delhi
October 14, 2025
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