Cuba is interested in expanding cooperation in healthcare, agriculture and sports with Mongolia, Cuban Ambassador to Mongolia Raul Delgado Concepcion told President Kh.Battulga during a meeting on October 20. Having established diplomatic ties in 1960, Mongolia and the Republic of Cuba have maintained their friendly relations despite the distance between the two countries. Cuba was the first country in Latin America to establish diplomatic ties with Mongolia. The Cuban Ambassador reported on certain works being carried out within the frames of expanding cooperation in fields of healthcare, agriculture and sports between Mongolia and Cuba. He reported to President Kh.Battulga on how Cuba will soon be supplying pharmaceutical products for liver inflammation and diabetes to Mongolia. Cuba boasts a sophisticated pharmaceutical sector, having been forced to internally develop its medical sector faced with a US embargo. According to the UCLA Center for World Health, Cuba presents a largely untapped market for both commercial prospects and non-commercial medical research. Cuba has developed a promising treatment for foot ulcers in diabetic patients named Heberprot-P. The medicine has been proven to reduce the relative risk of diabetic foot ulcer amputation in more than 71 percent of cases in pilot studies. So far, more than 250,000 patients from 26 countries have been treated with Heberprot-P in Cuba. In addition, Cuba has already become or is on track to become the first country to eradicate hepatitis B with a vaccine developed by Cuban researchers in the 1980s. Currently, Cuba is said to be developing a vaccine for lung cancer, CimaVax, which many US researchers are interested in testing. It’s a vaccine directed against a protein that is involved with growth of cells. Former President Ts.Elbegdorj revived Mongolia’s biotech relations with Cuba during his visit to the country in September 2016. Ts.Elbegdorj visited the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, where the Heberprot-P treatment was developed. After the visit, three experts from the center in Havana traveled to Mongolia in March 2017, helping to mark a new phase of cooperation in biotech. President Battulga for his part was particularly interested in expanding cooperating with in dental healthcare, which he said has become a pressing issue in Mongolia. “The Cuban dental health professionals are some of the best in the world,” the President noted. Ambassador Raul Delgado Concepcion also conveyed the interests of Cuba to cooperate with Mongolia in the elimination of field mice and collaboration between sports institutions of the two countries, as well as in training athletes for the 2020 Olympic Games. The ambassador also passed on the greetings of President of the Republic of Cuba Raul Castro and handed the congratulatory letter on being elected the head of state to President Kh.Battulga.