ULAANBAATAR (Ruptly) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga hold a joint document signing ceremony and give press statements in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday, September 3 following their meeting.

The two leaders are expected to discuss the current state of Russian-Mongolian cooperation and its prospects, as well as a number of topical regional matters and to sign inter-governmental and inter-departmental documents, including the new Treaty on Friendly Relations and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Russian Federation and Mongolia.

Vladimir Putin came to Ulaanbaatar at the invitation of President of Mongolia to attend celebrations marking the 80^th anniversary of the victory of Soviet and Mongolian forces in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol.

The War of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Japan and Manchukuo in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield. The battles resulted in the defeat of the Japanese Sixth Army.

After the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931, Japan turned its military interests to Soviet territories that bordered those areas. The first major Soviet-Japanese border incident, the Battle of Lake Khasan, occurred in 1938 in Primorye. Clashes between Japanese and Soviet forces frequently occurred along the border of Manchuria.

In 1939, Manchuria was a puppet state of Japan known as Manchukuo, and Mongolia was a communist state allied with the Soviet Union, known as the Mongolian People4s Republic. The Japanese maintained that the border between Manchukuo and Mongolia was the Khalkhyn Gol (“Khalkha River”) which flows into Lake Buir. In contrast, the Mongolians and their Soviet allies maintained that the border ran some 16 km east of the river, just east of Nomonhan village.