- The past 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and Mongolia. What events and meetings were organized on the occasion of this anniversary?
- In 2022, we've had a very vibrant year of celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and Australia. And this certainly served to strengthen our relationship and our cooperation as our countries both emerged from COVID-19. We held a series of celebratory events here in Mongolia and in Australia. I'd like to start by saying our relationship is in excellent shape. We've got very strong ties across education, people-to-people linkages, economic relationships as well as security linkages.

We started the year by launching an Australia-Mongolia Anniversary Grants program, which was valued at $1 million Australian dollars. It provided grants to 10 Mongolian organisations to carry out development work in areas of importance to both of our countries, including gender equality, disability, inclusive development, climate change and youth empowerment. 

We're also very lucky this year to have received high level visits to Australia, including Deputy Prime Minister Amarsaikhan who visited during the date that we entered into diplomatic relations on 15th of September. He also met our Deputy Prime Minister and our Foreign Minister during that time. It was wonderful to have those meetings that strengthened the relationship at the highest level. 

We also welcomed the Minister for Mines and Heavy Industry to Australia, and he led a very large delegation to Canberra in Sydney for our International Mining Conference. That was a very strong outcome.  And we hosted the Chief of General Staff to Australia for Indo-Pacific Heads of Defense Forces conference as well. Likewise, this way to Mongolia we had numerous visits by Australian officials to join the Khaan Quest exercise, the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue and Mining Week. 

After a number of years’ break, our policy talks restarted. These were our Senior Officials Talks as well as our Defense Policy talks. These were an opportunity to strengthen our cooperation and exchange views on the strategic issues in the region as well. 
One thing I’m most proud of this year is that we were able to re-establish our people-to-people linkages. We now have 39 Australia Awards scholarship holders from Mongolia studying in Australia and we were able to restart our volunteers program here to Mongolia. We welcomed back three volunteers. As part of the 50th anniversary we announced the new Work and Holiday Maker visa, which has been very successful to date.

- In the past 50 years, what are the specific events that took place between the two countries?
- Looking back 50 years ago, I think for both Australia and Mongolia, it was a very bold and brave decision to enter into a diplomatic relationship, as it was the height of the Cold War. And due to this, the relationship started slowly, but it's really accelerated since the 1990s when Mongolia started to make its transition to democracy. This was also the time in 1993 where we started our Australia Awards Scholarships program, which is now really the cornerstone of our relationship. There were also high-level visits in the 1990s by both of our heads of states, our Governor General Bill Hayden here in 1994. These are very historical and significant visits.

Then I would say another milestone was 2007 when our former Foreign Minister came here and we entered into an expanded partnership with Mongolia and we officially became Mongolia's third neighbour. It's a very important reciprocal relationship as well. Then our embassies were opened and these provided a very strong boost to the engagement on both sides. The Mongolian Embassy opened in Canberra in 2008 and our Embassy opened here in 2015. Having that presence on the ground has helped us to expand and deepen our relationship. For me, there's been many milestones along the way to where we are today to become a very genuine relationship. We share so much in common with Mongolia:  we're both outward looking countries, we're both democratic countries, we have free market economies, we support human rights and international rules and norms. 

- Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the Australian Scholarship Program, which began in 1993. What is the planned work in during this anniversary? Is there any opportunity to expand quote of Mongolians?
- The 30th Anniversary of our Australia Awards program is also a very important milestone for our relationship. We are planning to mark the occasion with some celebrations. I'll be looking at the history of the scholarships program and highlighting some of those stories of scholarships holders who came back to Mongolia and have done amazing things here, such as contributing to the private sector and the public sector, as well as civil society, and also talking about their experiences in Australia. Next year we will have 700 people graduate from our Australia Awards program. The amazing cohort of people, the Australian alumni, we call “the Mozzies” are undoubtedly our greatest asset here and they're really important for our people-to-people linkages. 

I think what's been important in our Australia Awards program is that these scholarship holders have been able to take their families to Australia. So it has had a generational impact. The children of the scholarships students were able to be integrated in the Australian education system and culture. They also have strong ties to Australia. 

The Mozzies have been inspirational for other Mongolians. Now we've got thousands of Mongolians going to study in Australia each year, so it has strengthened our bond in the education sector. In the future, we do really hope that we can again expand the program. We'll also be offering some short courses in 2023, and these are in energy and agriculture as well as the arts.

- More than 60 Australian companies operate in Mongolia, and most of them work in the mining sector. Is it possible to increase this number in the future?
- One of my key jobs is to expand the Australia-Mongolia economic linkages.  Our trade and investment relationship is in a good shape and I'm pleased that we have a strong contribution here to the mining sector in terms of our companies bringing new technologies and working to strengthen skills and create employment as well. As part of our Embassy team, we've got the Australian Trade Commission which supports trade and investment provides advice to Australian companies who are interested to invest here. The Australian Chamber of Commerce is also active here and are   working hard to support business linkages between Australian and Mongolian companies. There is certainly more potential in the relationship.

The Government's new economic revival policy has set out the right path. Mongolia's got an incredible endowment of natural resources and we do want to support them to be developed with the highest and strongest safeguards. There is other potential as well. Energy is an area where Australian companies are already here exploring, looking at the possibilities of gas and potentially in green hydrogen as well. We also have a strong background in agriculture. And so does Mongolia. I'm sure there is something we can offer there as well, perhaps in the dairy sector, in meat processing or even the wool industry as well. We have a long and thriving wool industry in Australia. There are definitely areas for more corporation.

- Specifically what kind of possibility in meat and cashmere market do we have?
- There are different aspects in the meat area. We have a big export industry in meat and perhaps that's one area Mongolia wants to explore further. It could be in terms of the processing side of packaging and slaughtering and making sure health and safety standards are being met because they are very stringent standards globally. We certainly have expertise in that area and a lot of experience in the wool area. We've already started some cooperation to work with herders here to adapt and update their shearing techniques using some of Australia's technology in shearing. Australia holds the world record for the fastest shearers in the world. So there is some cooperation that could be scalable.

- How many Mongolians have gone since Australia started issuing new Work and Holiday Maker visas in July to increase employment opportunities?
- The Work and Holiday Maker visa was announced this year during State Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs visit to Australia as part of our 50th anniversary events. It started on the 1^st of July. It's a reciprocal visa so Australians can also travel here and Mongolians can travel to Australia, and it’s for people under 30.

From the Australian side, I'm very pleased to say that it's been wildly successful. The 100 places have already been taken up, so it's closed for this year, but next year it will open again on the 1^st of July. For Australia it's a really strong program. It is a win-win for Australia and it supports our labour sector as well.  I also think for young Mongolia it's a fantastic opportunity to strengthen their skills and to earn some money and also to experience our country. I think in future we'll certainly be looking at ways and talking with the Mongolian government on how we can expand that program.

- What does the Embassy plan to do in 2023?
- The 30^th anniversary of our Australia Awards program will be our key theme for 2023 and we are planning some events to mark and celebrate that. I do hope we can further strengthen our people-to-people linkages now that travel has freed up. We'll be looking to get even more Australian volunteers here and we’ll have our new Colombo Plan students who are due to arrive as well in the first half of the year. They will be visiting Mongolian partners and academic institutions as well to strengthen their relationships

We will also focus on our strategic level engagement and this will involve holding our policy talks, which are  due to be held here in Mongolia next year, as well as supporting high level visits and looking at what security engagement we can cooperate on. There is much scope to broaden our relationship next year and we will certainly be working on that.

Areas where I'm focused on is climate change and energy.  Australia's Government, which has been in place since May, has a very strong commitment to tackling climate change. Our new commitment is to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 as well as to transition our energy sector to 82% of renewables by 2030. It is a very strong ambition and I do think these are areas that we can cooperate on because both Australia and Mongolia are tackling climate change., We're both experiencing desertification, wildfires, shortage of water. I'm also proud to say that I'm the Australian government's first woman Ambassador here to Mongolia and for me this is an area where we can do more in. I'm very committed to progressing gender equality in our cooperation here in Mongolia, whether that's supporting more community organizations or cooperating at the global and regional level on gender equality.

- About the gender equality, I prefer to have interview with woman Ambassadors. You are my third woman guest in Ambassadors interview series. Because most of the Ambassadors are men. I think gender quality is very important in every country.
- That's right. Mongolian women are so amazingly strong and they're really thriving. I think they are well educated and they work hard and they contribute very much to the economy in Mongolia. There are, of course, many issues here, as well as in Australia. We're still grappling with violence against women and women in senior leadership positions. These are areas we can work on together.

- During the pandemic, a direct flight between the two countries was conducted for the first time in order to repatriate the employees of Oyu Tolgoi LLC. Is it possible to have direct flights between Mongolia and Australia in the future?
- With the pandemic, there are many positives that have come out of it. Our face-to-face engagement dropped off during this period, but we really supported each other through the pandemic and we thank Mongolia for their support for these repatriation flights of Australian citizens back to Australia. That's why we had this historic, very first direct flight. I think it’s also positive that Mongolia announced 2023 and 2024 as the years to visit Mongolia. I think that includes opening up the airlines. I do think there is certainly more potential, more opportunities for these direct flights. For me, this would be such an amazing benefit to both of our countries to further our people-to-people and our business linkages and our political linkages as well.

- Have you travelled Mongolian countryside? What provinces did you visit and what did you like the most?
- I have enjoyed traveling in Mongolia very much and find it’s a spectacular country. It's amazing. The landscape, the nature and the wildlife are so beautiful and unique. My highlights have included traveling to Terelj National Park and.  other interesting provinces like Umnugobi and Baganuur close by. I think for me, what I've enjoyed most is getting to talk to people from different communities and hearing about their life and their challenges, but also hearing about how these big economic investments in these areas have contributed to their communities and their concerns about the social impacts as well as the environmental impacts. One of the funny experiences I had, which was a brand-new experience for me, was when I was in Terelj and driving and getting stuck in the middle of a herd of yaks crossing the road. I found them quite gentle and beautiful creatures, but somebody told us not to honk the horn because they would startle and possibly ram the car. Coming from Australia, we are used to many creatures crossing the road, like kangaroos or wombats, cows or sheep!

- Were you afraid of them?
- At first yes, because they are so big, but I think they're nice. They're more gentle than horses I will have to ride a horse soon as it's a very Mongolian experience.

- I hope that you have tasted a Mongolian traditional food. Which one did you like most?
- Only a few so far, I would say, khuushuur is very well known. And the other day I was asked to try drink airag. It was a new taste for me and something I will have to get used to.

Last year I was lucky to arrive and experienced Naadam, which was amazing celebration, and there was a spectacular opening ceremony and I got to see all the different range of events and really experienced some of that Mongolian culture.

- What was your first impression when you came here, Mongolia?
- My first impression was how warmly welcomed I was. Mongolian people are extremely open and very easy to talk to. It's very vibrant culture, too. We're in the city, and it's quite a modern city, so the modernity coexists alongside this very deep, rich historical culture of the nomads. There's still a blending of those cultures even to this day and it's really fascinating.

- Looking at your previous experience, you mostly worked in Asian countries. What do you see as the characteristics of Asian countries, especially the unique style and attitude that you noticed when you came to Mongolia?
- I have lived in Asia quite a bit throughout my life. I've lived mostly in Southeast Asian countries including Laos, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. I enjoy Asian cultures very much, particularly because the people are very warm and they're very friendly and the culture is rich and extremely diverse as well. There is diversity across countries, but within the countries as well. I really enjoy learning about different cultures and experiencing them.

As for Mongolia, it's the first time I've lived in a very cold country. But the people are very warm and I've really enjoyed getting to know Mongolia, learning a lot about the history of Mongolia, as well as the traditional culture of the nomads. I see a lot of parallels and linkages with Australian culture, particularly the way we respect our nature. We have strong ties to our lands and traditions, and particularly with Indigenous Australian culture as well. We're very proud of our Indigenous culture, which is 60,000 years old in Australia.

- A Mongolian boy was born in Australia as the World's 8 billionth citizen. Mongolians are very happy with this occasion. What are your thoughts on this?
- That was just such a wonderful story to hear. I was so pleased that he was born in my hometown of Canberra. It was great to see the Mongolian Ambassador go to visit him in the hospital. The other link we have is that he was born to Australia Awards scholarship students. I think it's just such a beautiful story and I really hope that he will get to enjoy and experience living in Canberra and that he'll have fond memories and a strong linkage with Australia forever.

- What do you do here when your free time, especially during the Mongolian cold winter?
- My favourite thing to do here is to walk around the city, even in winter. I think it’s fun to get dressed up in winter clothes and take a walk . For me, that's the way you get to learn and understand a place and its culture because you're absorbing the atmosphere and you're getting to see different people and what they like to do and what they like to eat. 

I've also starting to try to do some sledding as well as some skiing here with my family. I'm not very good yet coming from Australia but I’m enjoying it and hoping to learn a little bit more. The other thing I am doing in my free time is I'm learning Mongolian, but it’s very slow process. I'm very much enjoying learning Mongolian. It's quite a different, difficult language for us, but I think it's important again to try to understand the culture and hopefully have a few conversations with people as I get out and about.

- Thank you for your time. Happy new year!