§ VISCOUNT FURNESSasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will make a statement regarding the negotiations with the Government of the Mongolian People's Republic for a Cultural Agreement.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (LORD WALSTON)Representatives of the Foreign Office and the British Council visited Ulan Bator last September in order to make arrangements with the Mongolian Government for cultural exchanges. At the conclusion of their visit it was agreed that Her Majesty's Government would take all appropriate steps to promote and facilitate such exchanges on the basis of annual programmes to he arranged between the British Council and the Executive Committee of Mongolian Organisations of Peace and Friendship. The programme for the financial year 1966–67 will include provision for the short-term attachment of a British454WA lecturer to the English Department of the Mongolian State University, the training of a Mongolian English language teacher at a British University and exchanges of books, periodicals and films. A Mongolian delegation is expected in London later in the year to discuss the programme for 1967–68.
These exchanges will for the present be on a modest scale, but in the opinion of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs they can nevertheless make a useful contribution towards the development of closer contacts and better understanding between the two countries.