On 5-6 July 2016 Mongolia hosted the first Working Meeting of the recently established Agriculture Committee of the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) in Ulaanbaatar. The meeting was co-organized by the GTI Secretariat and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Mongolia. The objective was to lay the foundation for the GTI Regional Agricultural Strategic Action Plan (SAP) based on the member states’ national strategies as well as the findings and suggestions of the Regional Report on Agricultural Cooperation in the Greater Tumen Region commissioned by GTI.

Participants from the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Mongolia, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of the Republic of Korea and Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation took part in the meeting. In order to support regional cooperation the SCSI Programme facilitated the discussion. After developing the common ground based on the introduction on national and regional policies of the respective member states participants jointly defined the vision for agricultural cooperation in the Greater Tumen Region. Based on the outcome of the fruitful discussions during the meeting the GTI Secretariat will prepare the Agricultural SAP Draft for submission within the GTI cooperation framework.