T'Way Air in the last few weeks filed planned operation for Mongolia during Northern summer 2023 season. The airline’s Seoul Incheon – Ulaanbaatar service already saw the restoration of 3rd weekly flight when seasonal service resumes on 02JUN23, this will be further increased to 4 weekly from 26JUN23.

Airbus A330-300 aircraft operates this seasonal route, scheduled until 29SEP23.

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Ganqimaodu border port, the largest artery in China for importing coal from Mongolia, saw its coal intakes reach 12.09 million tonnes from the start of 2023 to May 25, according to the port's official WeChat account.

The port's efforts in improving import efficiency and capacity have yielded impressive results in terms of customs clearance.

As of May 25, the cumulative import and export cargo volume through the border port reached 12.50 million tonnes, reflecting a substantial year-on-year increase of 251.87%.

Notably, the coal imports alone reached 12.09 million tonnes, accounting for 96.7 of the total. Imports of copper concentrate stood at 338,300 tonnes. Meanwhile, exports stood at 70,900 tonnes.

These figures highlight Ganqimaodu port's ability to surpass expectations by achieving 56.8% of its target task volume (22 million tonnes) well ahead of schedule.

Ganqimaodu has commenced the construction of dedicated AGV lanes for inbound and outbound traffic to facilitate traffic through the port, according to the official account.

(Writing by Emma Yang Editing by Harry Huo)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday met with Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh at the ministry in Riyadh.

They reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries, and discussed regional and international developments of common interest.

Prince Faisal and Batmunkh signed an agreement on political consultations between the Saudi and Mongolian ministries of foreign affairs.

The deal seeks to strengthen cooperation and friendship between the two countries and their people, and promote relations and joint coordination on all levels, with regard to bilateral relations and international issues of joint interest.

Abdulrahman Ahmad Al-Harbi, Saudi ambassador to China and non-resident ambassador to Mongolia, and Abdul Rahman Al-Rasi, undersecretary of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs for multilateral affairs, attended the meeting and signing of the agreement.

Under the auspices of the President of Mongolia, the 23rd Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO) successfully took place in Ulaanbaatar on May 22-28. Yesterday, the results of the APhO were summed up, in which 195 students from 27 countries of the Asia-Pacific region participated.

As part of the contest, participants were asked to solve theory and experiment-based complex questions of Physics.

Results of the APhO 2023:

Honorable Mention: 34 students

Bronze Medals: 23 student

Silver Medals: 17 students

Gold Medals: 33 students

Best Score in Theory: Lang Cheng Chao (China)

Best Score in Experiment: Igor Potapov (Russia)

Overall Winner (best total score): Lang Cheng Chao (China)

At the APhO 2023, all the students from the Chinese and Russian teams won gold medals and Chinese student Lang Cheng Chao obtained the highest score of 33.5 points. The 11th-grader L. Dulguun from the Mongolian team, the host country, won a bronze medal. As for our country, after 14 years, it has once again achieved a bronze medal.

During the closing ceremony of the Olympiad, Malaysia was named as the host country for the 24th Asian Physics Olympiad, and the Olympiad flag was officially handed over to the country.

China's first domestically produced passenger jet has taken off on its maiden commercial flight.

State TV showed the C919 rising into the skies above Shanghai, heading to the capital Beijing early on Sunday.

It was built by the Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (Comac) in the hope of breaking the dominance of Airbus and Boeing's single-aisle jets.

But the 164-seater still relies heavily on Western components, including engines and avionics.

Its first commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing, with more than 130 passengers, was completed in just under three hours.

The aircraft is scheduled to fly back to the coastal city.

State-backed China Eastern Airline has ordered five planes.

Comac - which plans to produce 150 planes annually in five years' time - says it has already secured more than 1,200 orders for the C919.

Some experts, however, say that most of these orders are believed to be letters of intent from domestic customers.

President Xi Jinping, who sat in the cockpit of a mock-up C919 a few years ago, has described the project as one of China's most innovative achievements.

Sole yokozuna Terunofuji wrapped up the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament with a 14-1 record Sunday by beating ozeki Takakeisho in the final bout of the 15-day meet.

The 31-year-old grand champion had clinched his eighth Emperor's Cup by beating sekiwake Kiribayama a day earlier at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan after coming into the tournament under an injury cloud.

Terunofuji underwent surgery on both knees last October and had missed all or part of the last four tournaments, but he dispelled concerns about his health with a dominant performance in his return to the raised ring.

His only blemish was a surprise loss to No. 6 maegashira Meisei (8-7) on Day 9.

"After the tournament started, I promised myself that I would do my best for all 15 days," said Terunofuji, who won his previous championship here a year ago. "Results aside, I wanted to make sure I stayed determined all the way until the end."

"I had the surgery because I wanted to start a new page. I wanted to come back as soon as possible and show everyone my sumo on the dohyo. So that was going through my mind every day."

The sport's only current ozeki, Takakeisho (8-7) did just enough to shake off demotion-threatened "kadoban" status at the tournament while coming off an injury-affected 3-4-8 record in March.

He made little headway with his opening charging against the Mongolian-born yokozuna, who seized on Takakeisho's subsequent pulling attempt to grab the ozeki and push him out.

The nephew of retired Mongolian great Asashoryu won the battle of grappling technicians with an underarm throw, taking a 7-6 edge in their head-to-head rivalry.

Kiribayama's ascent to sumo's second-highest rank is set to be formalized after he surpassed the standard ozeki promotion benchmark of 33 wins over the course of three tournaments as a komusubi or sekiwake.

"I really treated every individual bout as important," Kiribayama said. "I was more nervous this tournament than usual. I told myself I just needed to stick to my brand of sumo."

Daieisho (10-5) reached the 10-win threshold by overwhelming fellow sekiwake Wakamotoharu.

The winner of a single Emperor's Cup flew out of the blocks to execute a frontal thrust down against Wakamotoharu, who took home his first Technique Prize after finishing 10-5 in his debut at the third-highest rank.

Former ozeki Asanoyama, returning to the top flight following his lengthy suspension for breaking coronavirus safety rules, finished 12-3.

Fighting as a No. 14, he had been in contention for the title until the penultimate day.

The International Living Donor Liver Transplantation Society, the State First Central Clinic, and the National Cancer Center are co-organizing an international scientific theoretical conference "iLDLT Colloquium 2023 in Ulaanbaatar."

World leaders in liver transplantation from the USA, Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, India, and Belgium are participating in the conference. High technologies for kidney, liver, and bone stem cell transplantation have been fully introduced in the health sector of Mongolia, while teams for pancreas and heart transplantation have been formed and making preparatory works.

Mongolia is registered internationally as the 45th country to have introduced liver transplantation. Previously, our citizens had to go abroad for this type of surgery and treatment at a high price, but from 2011 they started to carry out these surgeries in the country, and since 2021 the Mongolian Government and the Ministry of Health have implemented a comprehensive policy and organ transplant treatment is now covered by health insurance 100 percent free of charge.

The National Liver Transplantation Team has successfully performed 200 surgeries. The State Great Khural approved the Law on Donors and is working to resolve the issue of nonliving donors. Construction of the Organ Transplantation Center is currently under discussion.

The European Parliament hosted a roundtable event on The Constitutional Reform Processes in Kazakhstan and Mongolia: Lessons and Perspectives, dedicated to current trends in the democratisation of political life in the region, Kazinform refers to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Members and staff of the European Parliament, national parliaments of member states, representatives of other key EU institutions, diplomatic corps, academic community, international NGOs and mass media participated in the event held on the initiative of MEP Wlodziemerz Cimoszewicz.

Among others, Chairwoman of the Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan Elvira Azimova, Chairwoman of the Committee on Legislation, Judicial and Legal Reform of the Mazhilis Snezhanna Imasheva and Ambassador of Kazakhstan in Brussels Margulan Baimukhan addressed the round table.

In his welcoming remarks, Cimoszewicz underlined Kazakhstan and Mongolia were important partners for the European Union which encourages consolidation of democratic institutions in both countries to support their stable and successful development, noted usefulness of the comparative analysis and experience exchange between the countries of the region taking into account specifics in the development of each of them.

«What is, now I believe, exceptionally important in these countries is to popularise the knowledge about these very important reforms, which are a chance to build stable, working democratic systems,» Cimoszewicz said.

Azimova thanked the organizers of the round table for highlighting the topic relevant for the development of our region and its cooperation with the EU. She informed the participants about the launching of the work and the mandate of the Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan, which was established within the amendments to the country’s Constitution, following the nationwide referendum of 2022 and «ultimately must be the main foundation of the human rights protection system».

«Distinctive characteristic of all constitutional control bodies is the combination of theoretical and scientific approaches with a profound understanding of practical aspects and realities. The Constitutional Court rejects the mere pursuit of justice without considering other crucial factors. It strives to establish a rule of law that addresses contemporary needs of individuals, society and the state, while remaining connected to actual circumstances,» she stressed.

At the same time, «the broadened jurisdiction of the court, which includes the review of normative legal acts based on citizens’ appeals, as well as those submitted by the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Prosecutor General, signifies the humanistic and human rights-focused approach of the constitutional reform in Kazakhstan,» emphasised Azimova.

Eamon Gilmore, Special Representative of the European Union for Human Rights, in his statement stressed the importance of constructive interaction between the state and civil society in the implementation of constitutional reforms. «At the heart of the European Union’s partnerships with Mongolia and Kazakhstan are the fundamental principles of human rights, the rule of law and democracy. This means we … support each other in their practical manifestation in legislative changes and in their implementation,» he stressed. In this connection, according to him, in Brussels, they «look forward to the effective implementation of the recent constitutional reforms in Kazakhstan.»

According to Ambassador Baimukhan, «this year, Kazakhstan has completed the initial stage of large-scale political reforms and a systemic transformation of the political system has been carried out, creating a new, more democratic model of government.» In the context of relations with the EU, he stressed that «while our economic and political cooperation is significant, we also believe it is important to continue our strong dialogue with the European Parliament, crucial for us in terms of exchanging best law-making practices.»

Salvatore De Meo, Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament, shared his views about the relevance of the topic of the round table. According to him, «Kazakhstan is facing an important democratic development and search» and therefore «the EU is watching very closely the constitutional reforms undertaken.» To this end, he noted the European institutions were open to substantive cooperation to consolidate democratic institutions through further improvement of the legislation in partner countries.

During the discussions at the round table, among important innovations mentioned were the easing the requirements to the registration of political parties in Kazakhstan, which led to the increase in their number, and the holding of the parliamentary elections on March 19, 2023, which resulted in the noticeable strengthening of political pluralism in the national legislature.

In this context, MP Imasheva presented a review of the key areas of the constitutional reform, implemented with the participation of the Parliament, including the transition from the super-presidential model to the presidential republic with greatly increased powers of the legislative branch, the expansion of citizen participation in the governance of the country and the improvement of mechanisms for the protection of citizens’ rights.

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In general, the round table participants noted important positive changes in the dynamics of the institutional development in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, as well as the need to continue substantive and constructive dialogue with the EU on the further implementation of reforms aimed at strengthening the democratic foundations of the development of states and societies in the region.