MONGOLIA'S PRIME MINISTER ON MONGOLIAN-RUSSIAN COOPERATION








ULAN-BATOR, MARCH 1, 2001. /RIA-NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER ALTMAN/ -- Mongolia has always perceived more substantial cooperation with Russia to be a top-priority aspect of its foreign-policy line. This was disclosed in an exclusive RIA-NOVOSTI interview here today by Mongolia's Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar.


	According to Enkhbayar, a rather favorable situation for expanding inter-state contacts and those between the people of the two countries (that have always been linked by close ties of friendship and fraternity) had emerged over the past 80 years.


	President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation had paid an official visit to Mongolia in the fall of 2000, thus providing an important incentive for continued bilateral dialogue, Enkhbayar stressed. Besides, that visit was conducive to the revival of traditional relations between Mongolia and Russia, he said in conclusion.