On the sidelines of the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security, Dr. Mendee Jargalsaikhan (@MendeeJ), Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies under the National Security Council of Mongolia, and I together with Ambassador Kadambay Sultanov (@Amb_Sultanov), Senior Research Fellow at The International Institute for Central Asia (@IICAinTashkent), met to discuss our shared research priorities with a primary focus on ensuring expert support for Uzbekistan-Mongolia relations and the Central Asia-Northeast Asia Dialogue. In my conversation with Dr. Mendee, I reiterated that Mongolia is a steadfast partner of Uzbekistan in Northeast Asia. I emphasized the value of our partnership across the two regions as Uzbekistan is keen on expanding the opportunities for broader economic cooperation between Central Asia and its immediate neighbors like Mongolia which actively promotes the Third Neighbor Policy in the surrounding regions. Our meeting ended with a signing of the Cooperation Agreement between The International Institute for Central Asia and the Institute for Strategic Studies (National Security Council of Mongolia), the first of its kind the IICA has ever inked with an Ulaanbaatar-based think tank. With high hope for the future, I look forward to continuing to work with Dr. Mendee and his team as the relations between our two nations continue to rise and our think tanks could play a critical role in building and nurturing Uzbekistan-Mongolia relationships.