First of all, Happy New Year. Thank you for accepting our interview request. 2023 was a busy year for UK-Mongolia relations as we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations. Can you tell us what were the highlights of the celebration year?
It's quite hard to choose one highlight because we had this incredible moment in our diplomatic relationship. 60 years of partnership is a really big moment and it's a real privilege to start my job this year. There are so many highlights. So even before I arrived, we had the coronation of my king, which is a big moment in our nation’s life and it's great that Mongolia celebrated with us. The Mongolian president came to London and that was a wonderful moment. I came in July after the coronation. Since then, it has been only half a year since my arrival, but we had some incredible moments.

There was a big festival for education called “Inspire Me” at the White Rock Centre, which was energizing, inspiring and great fun. In November, we had the performances of the Mongol Khan in the London Coliseum, which is one of London's most iconic theatres in the heart of our capital. For months in the lead-up to the production, everywhere in London, there were posters and advertisements for this incredible production. It was on buses, on the subway, etc. and everyone was talking about it. I was in London for the performance, and it was fantastic. I felt incredibly proud. It was a wonderful moment. So, I would say those are my highlights, but they are hard to choose.

While the Mongol Khan was performing in London there were criticisms and praises about it. How satisfied are both sides with the outcome of this cultural event?
I think we all think it was an enormous success. It was an incredible demonstration of the partnership that Mongolia chose the UK to stage this production. It also really took the whole theatre scene like a storm, and it caused a great excitement. Some of the reviews said that there'd never been anything like this on the London stage before. I hadn't seen it before I went to the gala performance. I just couldn't believe it was so beautiful. The choreography is amazing. It was such an incredible fusion of dance and drama and such a strong representation of Mongolian heritage. 

Personally, what are you looking forward to doing in Mongolia in 2024? And what do you do mostly during your free time here? 
I love traveling around the country. So, I've been to eight aimags so far and I’m just really looking forward in 2024 to doing more of that. I feel it's such a privilege to be able to live here. So, I'd love to visit more places outside UB, meet more Mongolians, learn more about the country, and just see your beautiful landscape. I suppose that sort of fits as well with what I do when I'm not working. I try and go out into the countryside and do a bit of horse riding when I can, which is just amazing because you feel free in the big landscapes. I wasn't prepared for how beautiful autumn was going to be. That was amazing. Just riding across the beautiful countryside with the leaves turning orange. 

I saw your picture when it was the first day of 2024 that you saw the sunrise. Where was it? 
That was what they called “The sunrise train”. UB Railway invited us. Early in the morning, we got the train from UB station, and we went to Khangai station located out in the east 2 hours from UB. When we left and travelled it was dark outside. They stopped the train in the middle of nowhere. When we stepped off, there were gers and they put up huge fires, and some dancing performances. Then we all stood and greeted the sunrise on the first day. I thought “Wow, what an amazing start to the year”. 

What are UK Embassy's goals for 2024 or the main activities and projects planned for this year?
So, we've got quite a busy year coming up. There is a lot that we would like to do to support Mongolia as you approach elections in June, particularly to try and support in increasing women's participation. I'm also very passionate about education and English language teaching and I hope we can do more on that. We are very keen to see how we can develop our partnership on critical minerals and increase British investment in Mongolia.

We're building our peacekeeping relationship so we're hoping to do a joint UN deployment together and we are doing a lot to strengthen our cultural partnership too. So, I'm hoping to see more events probably not on the scale of the Mongol Khan in London but more opportunities to showcase Mongolian culture in the UK. It seems there are quite a lot of similarities between our countries, and I think that British people feel very inspired when they think about Mongolia, and I would love to showcase that a bit more in the UK through exhibitions, art and culture and cultural exchanges.

2024 is a decisive year for Mongolians because people will vote in elections. The embassies of some countries are interested in participating in the elections as observers. It also implements projects that encourage young people to actively participate in elections. Is your embassy planning any activities related to the 2024 elections?
Yes this is a really important moment for Mongolia. Elections globally are always a fantastic moment for the country to reflect on what policies it would like to see, and what kind of country it wants to be. And so, I feel very privileged to be in Mongolia whilst that process is taking place. Mongolia took an incredibly brave step 30 years ago, and each round of elections strengthens those principles each time. It will be a really interesting moment for Mongolia as well, because this is the first time you've held elections with the new system that's been adopted. So, I'm curious to see how that goes and to see and understand your experiences of it.

In the UK, we have the first past the post-majoritarian system and you've retained some aspects of that, but with a new component. So, I'm really interested to see how that goes. We will be participating as observers and just hopefully witnessing a great moment for Mongolia as it exercises its democratic rights and its citizens have the opportunity to choose their next government and to decide what is important for them, what policies they want to see. So I'm looking forward to it. 

Increasing the participation of women in any field and including their voice in policy decisions will help to ensure social and gender balance. I also appreciate talking to the female ambassadors. In general, how do you see attention paid to women's participation and gender equality in Mongolia?
So, Mongolia has shown an incredible leadership in this. Your foreign minister convened female foreign ministers in UB last year, and it seems like there is a very strong commitment on behalf of the government to increase participation. The female candidate quota is a good start. Now, as we know from other places around the world, having a quota for the number of candidates doesn't always translate into seats. But let's see. As I mentioned, I think we'll have to see how this new process works for Mongolia, so we'll learn from that. But you're absolutely right, there is so much research that demonstrates that strengthening female participation strengthens democracy. And so, the more women that can come forward and stand for office, the better and stronger that will make the country economically, politically, and socially. 

I think it would be fantastic to see more women in parliament and in leadership roles throughout the country. It's not a challenge that's unique to Mongolia. It's something that I think my country is still working on as well. As a species, we have not reached equality yet, but I hope that these elections will be the opportunity for another step forward and to see more women. It's hard. I think if I were a woman considering standing for election, I think that I would be weighing up a lot of quite difficult choices. We know that women face more criticism and that they are held to a higher standard. We know that there is more commentary on women's appearance and their personal lives than there is on men. So, if you're a woman considering standing for office, it's really hard. So I really hope that we can support women to take that brave step and to support them and to create the opportunity to educate, inform people about how hard it is to be a woman leader, particularly in politics. 

I heard that you have served in the military, right? 
Yes, correct. 

Interestingly, Mongolia has not approved the procedure for enlisting women in the military, but the officials are talking about it briefly. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of women joining the military? Was it hard to serve in the military as a woman?
I think in any profession, including in the military, if you enable men and women to work alongside each other, you double the talent pool. Some women want to serve in the military, and some don't. But the same for men. There are some men who want to serve in the military and some who don't. So, to me, it feels more logical to open it to everybody and those who want to and are capable of it can join. If you meet the standards and if you want to do it, then you can have a career in it. I think that compelling people to participate is probably not the best way of doing it. When it is mandatory for all men to do it there are some men who aren't capable of it, but maybe some women are capable of it. So, open up the pool, widen the talent pool, and those who want to and are capable of will do it. And those that don't want to, do something else. 

Please share your memories of when you joined the military. Was it hard to serve in the military as a woman?
I think it's tough, but I think that any career is tough. It's the same being a diplomat. It's the same being in the army. It's the same as being a journalist. Anything that's worthwhile is hard. You have moments when you're tested, and you have moments when it's really hard. I think that what I learned in the military is about the power of teamwork. I learned that if you are all working together for the same objective, that is so much more powerful than trying to do it on your own. I saw in a team, not everybody has to be the same. Some people can be good at some things, some people can be terrible at them, and some people could be good at other things. And what you need in a good team is people who are good at different things. 

I learned a lot about myself, my leadership style, and where my points of being tested are. And I learned what I need to do to stay resilient. it's the same in any job. You know about yourself what you need to feel good and perform at your best. 

Britain has shown to the world that it is a major supporter of Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war. Can you mention recent support? Meanwhile, the Israel-Hamas war is one of the global problems. Sadly, thousands of innocent children and women are dying there. What can UK and Mongolia do in the region to support the affected parties?
It's really important question. Firstly, on Ukraine, the UK is quite proud to have been a strong supporter of Ukraine, from even before Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. 

I think that from the outset, we realized that Ukraine intended to fight for its sovereignty and for its territorial integrity. We wanted to help them to maintain the principles of the UN charter. So, we have provided a lot of support to them. Alongside our partners, we've provided the means for them to push back militarily, which they've done with incredible bravery. And if you think about where expectations are now versus when the invasion happened, at the time, I think people thought it wouldn't be long until Russia invaded the whole country and there would be no more Ukraine, but the Ukrainian spirit has shown that that's not the case.

We're very proud to have supported the Ukrainians to defend their homeland. We don't want to see the war prolonged, we want to see it end. We want to see peace in line with the UN charter. So, we want Ukraine to have all its land back. That doesn't seem unreasonable to us, and we really hope that Russia will accept this and will come to the table to negotiate a peaceful way forward. But that has to include Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. If someone came to your house and took away some of your rooms and then said, “Okay, let's talk about what deal we can come to” you would respond “No, this is my house”. We are very keen to end the war and support Ukraine to rebuild. But we can't do that if Russia is still occupying their house.  

In Gaza, we also don't want to see the conflict prolonged. We want to see humanitarian pauses that will enable support to get into the Palestinian people. But Israel has a right to defend itself and any ceasefire has to be sustainable. It's a bit like in Ukraine. You can't just say stop because that doesn't deal with the root of the problem. You can have a ceasefire, but you will then have to find a solution to the problem, or it occurs again. If Hamas remains in Gaza and we don't have a sustainable ceasefire, who can say that the atrocities of October 7th couldn't happen again. So, we don't want to see it prolonged, we want to find a peaceful solution to it. But it has to be a way in which Israelis and Palestinians can live peacefully alongside each other in a two-state solution. And we have to address the root cause of the problem, which is the terrorist group Hamas.

I would like to ask about UK investors. The law on investment is currently being discussed at the session of the Parliament. What kind of legal structure do you think is possible to attract foreign investors? Also, can you share with us in which sectors British investors are interested in Mongolia?
Mongolia has done a lot to strengthen the legislative framework of investment in the country and done a lot to address some of the issues that the chambers have raised and make the environment more attractive to international investors. So that's great. Things like revising the investment law and mining law are great. What I think we do need to see from a British investor's point of view is keeping that environment stable. So trying to make sure that there aren't regular big changes to the legislation or the requirements on investors. When we go and talk to British companies about investing in Mongolia, of course, naturally they want to know, will my investment be secure? What happens if it goes wrong? Because sometimes deals don't work out and projects don't work. And so, if it doesn't work, is there a dispute mechanism that will protect me and my investment? So, I think there's more that we can do together to strengthen that environment and to provide those reassurances because I think that there are many exciting opportunities for investors in Mongolia. 

The UK has particular expertise in areas like financial services. And we are very proud of the City of London and all the opportunities it brings, and we'd love to share some of that expertise with Mongolia. I would like to bring more banking services, consultancies and all of that expertise to Mongolia. 

The other thing that we're very excited about is we'd love to do more on is fintech. We had great success with this company called What3Words, which has really been an amazing partnership for the UK and Mongolia and is now used globally. It was adopted by the Mongol Post, and I think it had quite a good impact here. So if we can bring more innovation, more technology, and more companies that are thinking about these kinds of projects, I would love them to come to Mongolia and work here. 

Please tell us about educational cooperation between the two countries. 
So, it's really strong. There are thousands of Mongolians who've studied in the UK, I'm proud to say, and that just creates an incredible link between the two countries. We have a scholarship for master’s students and over 200 people have gone through the Chevening scholarship program which is a fully funded scholarship to the UK. So, you get to live in the UK, travel around the country, and study at UK universities.  We would like to work more on the school levels as well. The Education minister has taken some bold steps in setting out some reforms to the schools, the curriculum, foreign language training and teachers’ professional development. The ministry is working with British companies to try and spread that out across the country. So not just for schools in UB but trying to make sure that students across the country have access to these resources. British companies are working with the ministry on the national curriculum and we're working on the platforms and the teacher training. That means that teachers are always getting the support because it's a very tough job and we'd love to continue to do more of that. 

Does the Pearson program belong to the UK, right? I heard it's going very successfully since it started. Because some result shows us good improvements in students’ English knowledge. 

Exactly right. I hope that it's the foundation for more cooperation. Pearson has worked really closely with the Education Ministry and has developed this program that is specifically for Mongolia and will be rolled out in all state schools across the country. It's great to be able to share that expertise with the Ministry.

Thank you for your time with us!