Political relations

Mongolia and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg have established the diplomatic relations on 11/07/1976.

Diplomatic representations and Honorary consuls of the two countries
The Embassy of Mongolia in Brussels is concurrent in Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
The current Ambassador of Mongolia to Luxebourg His Excellency A. Battur presented his Letteres of Credentials to H.R.H Grand Duke Henry the 2nd of October, 2008.
The Embassy of Luxembourg in Beijing is concurrent in Mongolia. The current Ambassador of Luxembourg in Mongolia His Excellency Carlo Krueger presented his Letters of Credentials to the President of Mongolia the 8th of November, 2007. Бээжин дэх Люксембургийн ЭСЯ Монгол Улсыг хавсран ажиллаж байна.

Mongolian national Ms. D.Khulan, First deputy Presidente of the “Tavan Bogd” group was designated as Honorary consul of Luxembourg and assumed her duties as such starting late 2008. Монгол Улсын иргэн, “Таван Богд групп”-ын Тэргүүн дэд Ерөнхийлөгч Д.Хулан ЛИГУ-ын Өргөмжит консулаар томилогдон 2008 оны сүүлийн улирлаас албан үүрэгт ажилдаа ороод байна. Luxembourgese national F. Kahen is working as Mongolian Honorary Consul starting from March, 2009.

Bilateral visits

The bilateral relations became active beginning of the 1990-ies and the visit of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg to Mongolia in 1998 constituted a new beginning in bilateral ties between the two countries.
• Prime Minister D.Byambasuren, June, 1992,
• Prime Minister M.Enkhsaikhan, January, 1997,
• Minister for External Relations Sh. Altanguerel, 1997,
• Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, August, 1998 /the first Head of Government level visit to Mongolia from the EU member state/
• Minister of Health and Social Welfare S.Sonin, March 1999,
• Prime Minister N.Enkhbayar, January, 2001,
• State Great Khural Speaker S. Tumur-Ochir, 2002
• Luxemburgese Parliament Speaker Lucien Vailer, 2005,
• Prime Minister M.Enkhbold, 2007,
• Prime Minister Jean -Claude Juncker, October, 2008,
• Prime Minister S. Bayar, March, 2009,
• MEP, Former PM and President, Parliament Group Mongolia-Luxembourg R. Amarjargal, January, 2010.

Agreements concluded

• “Agreement on mutual support and protection of invesments between Belgium-Luxembourg Federation and Mongolia” , 1992
• “Agreement on doble taxation” , 1998
• “Agreement on cooperation in the field of finances between the two governments” , 1998
• “Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Mongolia and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on the Cardiodiagnostic Center”, 2001
• “Agreement between the Government of Mongolia and the Government of Luxembourg on cooperation in the field of education”, 2009.

Trade and Economic Cooperation

From 1990 to 2007 three companies of Luxembourg invested a total of 3.118.917 US$ in Mongolia. 1.4 million US$ investment concernes the Mongolian banking sector.
The tradeturnout between Mongolia and Luxembourg in 2009 was 73.6 million, Mongolian export being 50 million a,nd import- 23.6 million US$, which represented a decrease of 16.2 % compared to the previous year. Around 40 percent of Mongolian import constitutes higienic products and 100 percent of Mongolian export to Luxembourg being gold.

Defense cooperation

Mongolia and Luxembourg established formal defense relations in 2002. Mongolian Defense Attached in Brussels has been accredited as non residence Defense Attache to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg since 2001.

Chief of the General Staff of the Mongolian Armed forces visited Luxembourg in 2004 and Luxembourg CHOD General Gaston Reinig made the reciprocal visit to Mongolia in June 2009.

Mongolia and Luxembourg soldiers were deployed together in the NATO led KFOR operation in 2005-2007 and planning to jointly participate in ISAF at Kabul International Airport.

Luxembourg Army provides English and French language training for Mongolian officers since 2006. In last 5 years more than 30 officers and NCOs attended language courses at Military training Center in Diekirch.

Cultural relations

A cultural agreement was signed during the Prime Minister S.Bayar’s visit in 2009. According to this agreement the two sides would organize exhibitions, carry out cultural and artistic activities and exchange students. The agreement also foresees the setting up of a governmental Commission to achieve the provisions enshrined in the agreement.

The Assistance of Luxembourg

Although Mongolia is not included into the list of the official development aide countries /there are aruond 10 countries/, the Luxembourgese side has been making great effort to assist Mongolia.

Starting from 1990-ies the Luxembourgese side is organizing a training programme for banking specialists and from 2001 a capacity building project is being implemented. Specialists from Mongol Bank, Hadgalamj Bank/ Saving Bank/ and from Mongolian Commercial Banks are sent to Luxembourg and trained there, learning from the banking experiences of Luxembourg.

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the Dutch Finance Minister offered a decisive support to Mongolia to become a member of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Devolepment and to upgrade its status in the EBRD in order to recieve credits from the mentioned Bank.

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg together with the Finance Minister of the Netherlands created in the EBRD “Mongolian Cooperation Fund” and inserted in that Fund 10 million Evro from Luxembourgese side.

The Mongolian side also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg to help establish a Research and Training Center at the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Project “Improving the Management of Disaster Relief in Mongolia”
The Luxembourgese side is taking part together with the UNDP in the implementation of the capacity-building project, carried out by the Mongolian Disaster Relief Authorities. The Government of Luxembourg offered 800 000 US$ to finance the second stage of the Project “ Reducing Disaster Threats and improving disaster management”. The first stage of this project implemented in 2002-2004, the second stage-in 2005-2007 and third stage is to be implemented in 2008-2011. The total cost of the second stage of the project was 900 000 US$, of which the Luxembourgese side granted 800 000 and the rest was offered be the UNDP. The overall cost of the third stage of the project is 2 million US$.

The government of Luxembourg offered 38 thousand US$ in 2000 and 200 thousand Evro in 2001 to cover the consequences of the cold winter. The Government of Luxembourg granted again an aide of 50 thousand evro to cover the immediate needs of vulnerable population affected by the Dzud during 2010 winter.

“The Cardiovascular Center” Telemedicine Project

This project MON/002 was initiated after a Memorandum of Understanding was established by the Prime Ministers of Mongolia and of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, which states that a Diagnostic Centre (CD) for Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) will be established in Ulaan Baatar (UB) with Luxembourg's assistance and financial support.

The identification mission, considering the unaffordable recurrent cost of “high-tech” diagnostic and treatment procedures in cardiology; with regard to the quality of service to the beneficiaries, doctors and patients; and to the magnitude of the problems faced by the health system in Mongolia (prevalence of diseases, distances, level of professional skills); proposed to establish a virtual centre aiming at making the central expertise available to the distant physicians.
Fore more information on the project, please see the attachment.