Mongolian Pres meets VP Naidu

Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga here on Friday met Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu.

Battulga is on a five-day visit to India with an aim to intensify bilateral ties between the two countries. He was received by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Battulga and Lord Buddha statue at Gandan Monastery in Mongolia via video-conferencing.

Battulga received a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here and was received by President Ram Nath Kovind. He later paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat here.

Battulga's visit to India is the first state visit by a Mongolian President in last 10 years, the MEA said, noting the two sides will hold in-depth discussions on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues.

It also said the two countries would review ongoing cooperation in fields of infrastructure, energy, disaster management, defence, security, culture, and capacity building.

The two countries had reached a strategic partnership in 2015 during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Mongolia. A number of high-level exchanges have taken place since then and the partnership has seen considerable progress during the last few years.