Foreign Minister delivers speech at CoD Ministerial Conference

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Mongolia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr L.Purevsuren made remarks at the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies (CoD) held on July 22-24, 2015 in El Salvador. Starting his speech, Mr Purevsuren congratulated the government of El Salvador on successfully hosting the CoD Ministerial Conference, chairing this Community. The Foreign Minister underlined that the world’s democracy still faces big challenges although the democracy has been strengthening and democratic values and ideology have been expanding globally under principles of the Warsaw Declaration, therefore big efforts are required for strengthening democracy and to protect it. “Mongolia chose 25 years ago the good and challenging way of developing the democracy and open society, and still has been overcoming hardship. Before 1990, Mongolia was one of the most closed nations in the world, but now we have become one of the most open countries. We are now celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first democratic election of our country,” said Mr Purevsuren. He highlighted that Mongolia has achieved its big success with support of the community of world, and sharing its democratic experiences with other nations in frames of the Foundation for International Cooperation (FIC). The CoD Ministerial Conference took place in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, the current chair of the Community, following successful previous conferences held in Warsaw, Seoul, Santiago, Bamako, Lisbon, Vilnius and Ulaanbaatar. It was attended by governmental representatives from over 130 countries, showing massive global support for the values and principles of the Community. The Ministerial Conference also gathered representatives of civil society, parliaments, the private sector, and youth for designated forums. They discussed topics relating to democracy that have been in the headlines during the last two years. The leading theme for El Salvador’s Presidency is “Democracy and Development”, and the participants closely examined a variety of relevant questions, including inclusion and social development, youth and citizenship, participatory democracy, sustainable development, and the struggle against poverty.