Mar. 14 – Japan and Mongolia agreed on Monday to launch talks on a bilateral free trade agreement and to provide Ulaanbaatar with economic aid, officials said. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Mongolian counterpart Sukhbaatar Batbold, who is on a six-day visit to Japan from Saturday, also agreed that the two countries will boost cooperation in the development of natural resources and infrastructure, according to a joint announcement released after their meeting in Tokyo. The matter was on the agenda last year as well, but it was stalled when Japan’s prime minister at the time, Naoto Kan, had