Lord Cameron in Mongolia; a timely and significant visit

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Lord Cameron in Mongolia; a timely and significant visit The UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron’s visit to Mongolia from 25-26 April 2024, the culmination of a tour of six Central Asian countries, was timely and welcome. Last year, Britain and Mongolia celebrated sixty years of diplomatic relations, the first to be established between Mongolia and a Western state. Bilateral ties are cordial, but it is more than ten years since a Foreign Secretary visited Ulaanbaatar. Lord Cameron's speech on the context and aims of his visit merits close attention. It accords closely with the Mongolian government's renewed emphasis on balancing relations with its immediate geographical neighbours, Russia and China, through greater engagement with 'Third Neighbours' who share modern Mongolia's democratic values. Against a vista of open steppe, Lord Cameron expressed enthusiastic support for enhanced co-operation with Mongolia in several key areas where the two countries share bilateral and global interests including trade, culture, education, and tourism. Increased funding for the Chevening scholarship programme will...
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Mongolian forum in Edinburgh; Scotland welcomes engagement with Mongolia

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Mongolian forum in Edinburgh; Scotland welcomes engagement with Mongolia On 11 April 2024 His Excellency Ambassador B. Enkhsukh and three of his Embassy staff travelled to Scotland to address an event for invited guests on the subject of ‘Today’s Mongolia and UK-Mongolian Relations’, with an emphasis on connections with Scotland.  This event was jointly organised by Namsrai Henderson, an Edinburgh-based consultancy on North-east Asian affairs, and the Asia Scotland Institute (ASI), a forum for the promotion and exchange of knowledge and know-how about Asia. The event continued ASI’s current series of high-level briefings by Asian Heads of Mission to the UK, who recently included the Ambassadors of Thailand and the Philippines. It also followed up initiatives linked to the 60th anniversary of Mongolia-UK relations in 2023. Attendees included business leaders, authors, academics, journalists, officials and others involved in public culture and the arts. The presentations took place in the Cabinet Room of Queen Elizabeth House, the flagship building of the UK Government’s Scotland Office...
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Mongolian Lunar New Year of the Dragon- Tsagaan Sar 2024

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This year, Mongolia's New Year festival, Tsagaan Sar (White Month) is celebrated on Saturday 10 February. Each New Year in a sixty-year cycle has a different name; the new year is called ‘Modon Luu Jil’, that is, 'Year of the Wood Dragon’. The start of the new year is calculated with the lunar calendar, and so it falls on a different date every time, generally at the end of January or in February. This festival is as important and popular as Christmas in Western countries. It is a national holiday when extended families gather to pay mutual respects.   According to historical tradition, this festival originated at the time of Chinggis Khaan. It is recorded that in 1207, on the first morning of the ‘Ulaagchin Tuulai Jil’ (year of the Red Hare), Chinggis began the day early by praying to the Eternal Blue Sky and his own holy mountain. He made offerings to his ancestors and then went to pay his respects...
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The Mongol Khan – a Study in Cross-Cultural Communication

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The Mongol Khan - a Study in Cross-Cultural Communication Since it first opened in mid - November 2023 a remarkable Mongolian stage drama has taken London’s West End by storm. ‘The Mongol Khan’, a visually stunning tragedy performed by a large cast including some of Mongolia’s most talented actors, is a private artistic venture. But its launch in London is also part of Mongolia’s current effort to engage the outside world, in particular the partner countries whom it terms ‘Third Neighbours’, in Mongolia’s cultural sphere as well as through enhanced economic ties. The international success of a new generation of Mongolian opera stars already demonstrates how much Mongolia has achieved in this sphere. (A gifted baritone, E. Amartuvshin, has recently performed the title role of Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House). The government is taking initiatives to develop and support Mongolia’s indigenous creative industry and talent. This year Britain and Mongolia are celebrating 60 years of bilateral diplomatic relations. Launching Mongolia’s first...
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Article on Scotland – Mongolia Relations

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The special edition of the magazine was first published on the official website of the Embassy of Mongolia in the UK on 9 November 2023. Please see our article on relations between Scotland and Mongolia on page 40 of this excellent publication! This is the special edition of DIPLOMAT magazine commemorating the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the UK. https://embassyofmongolia.co.uk/60years ...
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How the Mongolian language belies the myth that the nation’s nomads are rootless drifters. By Enkhee Namsrai

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At Home in Mongolian This article was first published in The Linguist 62/3 in September 2023.https://www.ciol.org.uk/sites/default/files/TheLinguist-Autumn23.pdf Over thirty years have passed since Mongolia opened up to the free world, but its national culture and language remain comparatively unknown. Many people still picture Mongolia as a vast expanse of grassy steppe across which nomadic herders wander at will in search of better grazing. This romantic notion poses challenges to linguists and others keen to correct embedded cultural misconceptions. Mongolia is in fact the 19th largest country by area in the world.  About 40% of its 3.4 million total population are herders. Many of the remainder live in the capital. To provide insights to the culture, I would like to take you on a journey through the key cultural concepts ‘dwelling place’ and ‘home’ starting with my favourite poem, ‘Bi Mongol Hun’ (‘I am a Mongol’) by Ch. Chimed. The first verse, in my translation reads: “I, born in a herdsman’s ger (yurt)   From which dried-dung smoke...
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The Special significance of Naadam in London this year- a member of the UK Mongolian community Enkhee Namsrai writes

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The Special significance of Naadam in London this year- a member of the UK Mongolian community Enkhee Namsrai writes  Source: London Naadam 2016 This article was first published on the official website of the Mongolian Embassy in the UK, 29 June 2023. http://embassyofmongolia.co.uk/?p=4743&lang=en London is always full of surprises, even for those who live there. Here is what a friend told me a few years ago. “It was a lovely sunny afternoon. I was walking near Wimbledon Common, when I heard a woman’s voice, strong and clear, singing in a foreign language I couldn’t identify. I followed the sound through the park, to an open field surrounded by trees. Here there stood a wide circle of tents, bright blue and white, as well as a yurt. In the middle of this arena next to a spectacular flagpole, several pairs of men were wrestling, keenly watched by people of all ages, many wearing bright, colourful traditional robes. Across the path, more people stood in line...
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Tsagaan Sar: Mongolia’s New Year

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Tsagaan Sar: Mongolia’s New Year This year, the Mongolian New Year festival, Tsagaan Sar (White Month) will be celebrated on Friday 12 February. Each New Year in a sixty-year cycle has a different name; the coming year will be called ‘Tsagaagchin Uher Jil’, literally ‘year of the White Cow’. The new year is calculated with the lunar calendar, and so it falls on a different date every time, generally at the end of January or in February. This festival is as important and popular as Christmas in Western countries. It is a national holiday when extended families gather to pay mutual respects.   According to historical tradition, this festival originated at the time of Chinggis Khaan. It is recorded that in 1207, on the first morning of the ‘Ulaagchin Tuulai Jil’ (year of the Red Hare), Chinggis began the day early by praying to the Eternal Blue Sky and his own holy mountain. He made offerings to his ancestors and then went to...
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Mongolia Update January 2021

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Since Mongolia registered its first confirmed COVID-19 case in November 2020, the number of cases has been gradually increasing by an average of 15 a day. As of 28 January 2021, Mongolia has reported 1692 cases (and only two deaths) to date which is still relatively low compared to other countries worldwide. The two main outbreak clusters remain the capital Ulaanbaatar and part of Selenge province with 861 and 217 confirmed cases respectively. The threat of COVID-19 spreading to other provinces remains high throughout the country. For this reason, movement out of Ulaanbaatar, already restricted, has been limited even more strictly from 23 January. Those who need to travel out of Ulaanbaatar now must get permission from their local province’s Emergency Commission as well as providing negative PCR results.  During this period of uncertainty, the State Emergency Commission (SEC) has met with significant public criticism, though they continue to defend their handling of the pandemic since it began in January 2020. Although the...
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