Malaysia hopes to revive ties with Mongolia

ULAANBAATAR (Mongolia): After a lethargic stage of relations over the past few years which turned “colder” following the 2006 murder near Kuala Lumpur of Mongolian citizen Altantuya Shaariibuu, Malaysia is keen to revive its bilateral ties with Mongolia.

Malaysia’s ambassador to China who is concurrently accredited to Mongolia, Datuk Zainuddin Yahya, in expressing the wish said he hoped the visit of Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to Mongolia would lead to the revival of the relationship.

Wan Azizah is scheduled to arrive in Mongolia on Tuesday for a three-day visit to attend Asian Ministerial Conference For Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in the capital until July 5. It is her first oversea trip since assuming the post.

“It is my fervent hope that the working visit by the Deputy Prime Minister to Mongolia will lead to the revival and strengthening of relations between the two countries,” he told Malaysian media covering Wan Azizah’s trip to the Mongolian capital on Tuesday.

He also hoped that the joint commission for the economic, scientific and technical agreement, which was signed between the two countries many years back, could be revived.

After the signing of the agreement in the past, Zainuddin said Malaysia and Mongolia “had never met” and the first meeting never took place.

“We hope that the first joint commission meeting between the two countries could be convened as soon as possible because this is a very important forum – for both sides to discuss and explore various potential cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

Malaysia had established diplomatic ties with Mongolia since 1971 but engagements at ministerial level were quite limited, he said.

Zainuddin said Malaysia-Mongolia diplomatic relationship turned lethargic since 1997 with not many exchanges of visits at the ministerial and official levels as well as from the private sector since then.

He acknowledged that the Altantuya murder incident to a certain extent had turned the relationship “colder”.

He believed the Mongolian government took personal interest in the Altantuya murder case and they were seeking for a fair judgment.

Altantuya was believed to have been shot dead before her body was blown to bits with explosives at a secondary forest near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, in 2006.

Former Special Action Force personnel Sirul Azhar Umar, together with colleague Azilah Hadri, were convicted of Altantuya’s murder and sentenced to death.

Zainuddin said Malaysia’s new government had made it clear on the Altantuya case, that they agreed to relook into the case, and pledged that the case must be dealt based on the rule of law.

To a question if the Mongolian government had approached him on the Altantuya case, Zainuddin said he had yet to receive any request for a meeting.

There are about 10 Malaysians currently in Mongolia and they are involved in the hospitality and service industries.

Trade volumes between Malaysia and Mongolia were valued at RM73.6 million in 2017 and RM66.7 million in 2016.

Malaysia exported electrical products, processed food and palm oil-based products and agriculture products to Mongolia. Mongolia meanwhile exported cashmere-based products and scrap iron to Malaysia. Bernama