Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh

Khürelsükh graduated from the Ulaanbaatar Secondary School No. 2 in 1985. He graduated from the University of Defense of Mongolia in 1989, with a major in political studies. He studied public administration at the Institute of State Administration and Management Development and Law at the National University of Mongolia, from which he graduated in 1994 and 2000 respectively.[2]

Khürelsükh with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018

He was Secretary-General of the Mongolian People's Party, became the President of Social Democracy Mongolian Youth Federation and President of the Left Wing Federation. Khürelsükh was elected to the Parliament of Mongolia three times – in 2000, 2004 and 2012. He has served as a member of the Cabinet of Mongolia five times: as Minister for Emergency Situation between 2004 and 2006, Minister for Professional Inspection between 2006 and 2008, Deputy Prime Minister (twice) and Prime Minister. He was awarded the United Nations Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2017.

He has also served as a mediator between Japan and North Korea.[3]

Khürelsükh led his Mongolian People's Party to a landslide victory in the parliamentary election on 24 June, 2020. In his election campaign, he noted that Mongolia would become an energy independent country from Russia.[4] However, he became the first Prime Minister of Mongolia to resign on 21 January 2021, citing street protests against public health service shortcomings.[5]

Khürelsükh with Sergey Shoigu in October 2018.

Khürelsükh started his political career as a political officer at the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) in 1991. Between 1994 and 1996, he worked as an adviser of the secretariat of the MPRP's fraction in the Parliament of Mongolia. He was one of the leading figures within the party to initiate and implement the institutional reforms of the youth organization of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He established the Mongolian Democratic Socialist Youth Federation by MPRP and served as President two times – between 1997 and 1999 and in 2000–2005. In 2000, he was elected to the Governing Board of MPRP, which is the core decision-making body of MPRP. In 2008, Khürelsükh was elected as Secretary General of MPRP. In 2010, under the leadership of Sükhbaataryn Batbold, Chairman of MPRP and in cooperation with similar-minded party colleagues, Khürelsükh championed the process of restoring the original name of the party – Mongolian People's Party, which was changed to "Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party" in 1924 by the recommendation of Comintern in order to demonstrate the solidarity with socialist parties at that time.

Khurelsukh is married and has two daughters.[6]

From 1989 to 1990, Khürelsükh served as a political deputy in the 152nd division of the Mongolian People's Army.[2] He was the first Mongolian military officer to resign from duty to maintain his party membership in 1990 when the government sought to separate party membership from various (public) offices.

• Cabinet of Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh