ULAANBAATAR, July 4 — Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has received an impromptu invitation for an audience with the President of Mongolia, Khaltmaa Battulga, at the state palace this evening.
Dr Wan Azizah said she received the invitation today while attending the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) for which she had made the visit to Mongolia.
“It’s impromptu,” she said when met by Malaysian journalists after concluding her various meetings and engagements in relation to AMCDRR today.
A meeting with the President of Mongolia was not on her original itinerary.
Dr Wan Azizah arrived here yesterday to attend the AMCDRR. It is her first overseas trip as Malaysia’s deputy prime minister.
When asked about the upcoming audience with the President, Dr Wan Azizah said she would convey at the meeting that in Malaysia now everybody had to adhere to the rule of law.
She said Malaysia would also be willing to consider more areas of cooperation with Mongolia.
Malaysia is hoping for a turnaround in its bilateral ties with Mongolia after a lethargic stage of relations over the past few years which turned “colder” following the 2006 murder near Kuala Lumpur of Mongolian citizen Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Malaysia’s ambassador to China who is concurrently accredited to Mongolia, Datuk Zainuddin Yahya, in expressing the wish, said he hoped the visit of Dr Wan Azizah to Mongolia would lead to the revival of the relationship.
Altantuya was believed to have been shot dead before her body was blown to bits with explosives at a secondary forest near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, in 2006.
Former Special Action Force personnel Sirul Azhar Umar, together with colleague Azilah Hadri, were convicted of Altantuya’s murder and sentenced to death. — Bernama
