You have been working in Mongolia almost a year. What was your first impression?

I’ve spent lot of time in Southeast Asia. I have completed three overseas postings in Singapore and Brunei and I was Ambassador to Laos. So, a lot of experience in Southeast Asia.

The biggest surprise for me was that Mongolia was less Asian than I was expecting and has more of an Eastern European feel to it, if that makes sense.

Given Mongolian geography and history, I was expecting it to be more Asian. But what I like is that mixture of European culture and Asian culture which I find makes working here quite straightforward, because I find Mongolians very easy to work with, to engage with and very straight forward. I think that makes doing our work much easier.

Then another wonderful thing is the amount of sunshine here. I really appreciate it. Obviously everyone knows that Mongolia is very cold in the winter time. But not many people actually say well there is lots of sunshine and in the summer it's beautiful. So that was a really nice surprise.

You mentioned that Mongolia is a kind of mixture between European culture and Asian culture. Is it bad or good for us? Mongolians are blamed about losing their nomadic lifestyle year by year. Please share your opinion?

I think it's a good thing that Mongolia has this sort of dual heritage. If you look at the long-term history of Mongolia going back to the days of Chinggis Khan when the Mongol empire stretched right across Asia and Eurasia, it makes sense there is that mixture. I think it is also means that Mongolians tend to be outward looking, they're very familiar, very curious or interested in what's happening around the world. I'm always struck that even when travelling through the countryside, how much people know about the UK and Europe and what's happening in the world.

So I think it's a good thing. It means it helps Mongolia to be outward looking. Especially given Mongolia sits between two very large neighbours and Mongolia continues to develop its relationships with the so-called third neighbours.

Last year you celebrated 55 years of relations between our two countries. What were the significant events during the last year?

It was really significant, as the United Kingdom was the first western country to establish diplomatic relations with Mongolia back in 1963. Even today, that is still remembered and it is an important element in our relationship. Because of that we wanted to celebrate as much as we could the 55th anniversary. There was a number of things we did.

First of all, we had large scale events here in Ulaanbaatar. Just before I arrived, my predecessor hosted a large reception in the State Opera House to launch the 55th anniversary year. We had an ice sculpture of the famous ‘’Beatles’’ band on Sukhbaatar Square. At the end of the year we made the ‘’Great Train Journey’’ where we rented one of the Mongolian Railway trains and decorated two the carriages in both Mongolian and UK flags. Then we took the train up to the north of the country to visit Darkhan, Erdenet and Selenge province and then right down to the south to Zamyn-Uud. Along the way we did various things to highlight the relationship between the UK and Mongolia.