Miscellaneous News

Mongolia’s deputy prime minister has called for closer ties between Canberra and Ulaanbaatar as the central Asian country finds itself wedged between the geopolitical ambitions of Russia to its north and China to its south.

Declaring Mongolia shared “common values with Australia, such as democracy and human rights”, Amarsaikhan Sainbuyan said the former Soviet satellite state would “not support forceful actions, whether it is China, Russia or any other country around the world”.

Mongolia has been largely neutral in its positions on Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s threats toward its democratic neighbour Taiwan because of its economic dependence on the two powers. But as tensions grow stronger, it has started carving out deeper relations with third countries and a more independent foreign policy.

“Being directly situated in between these two big neighbours, whether it is on the China side, or the Russian side it directly affects Mongolia’s economy. It is one of our main concerns,” Sainbuyan told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Sainbuyan reiterated Mongolia’s support for the one-China policy but criticised Beijing’s actions in Inner Mongolia, the northern Chinese province that abuts its southern border.

In February, his government signed a deal to build the Soyuz–Vostok gas pipeline, which will carry natural gas from Russia to China via its territory. Sainbuyan said it would help wean Mongolia off coal, but critics argue it will make it more dependent on Russian energy while also helping it find the world’s largest alternative markets as Europe shuns Russian gas over the war in Ukraine.

“Mongolia sits in a particularly precarious situation with China and Russia as its only neighbours, one that is sometimes described as sharing a bed with a bear and a dragon,” said Julian Dierkes, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia in analysis published by Foreign Policy.

“As much as Mongolia has sought to chart its own course for the last three decades, the walls have been closing in as China and Russia’s partnership deepens.”

Sainbuyan defended the pipeline.

“It’s not only about Mongolia-Russia relations, trade, or economic issues,” he said. “We consider this regional infrastructure and energy supply mega project will not only benefit Russia and Mongolia but the whole region should be benefitting from this project.”

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The UK is no longer a “development superpower,” the British minister responsible for overseas aid has told a parliamentary committee.

“Let us not beat about the bush. We are not a development superpower at the moment and that is something that is bemoaned around the world,” Mitchell told his fellow lawmakers.

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FriedButter said:

Apparently, the Brits have been calling themselves an “development superpower.”

Talk about copium. China and even the US does a better job than the Brits.

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kokole said:

‘Sharing a bed with a bear and a dragon’, Mongolia aims for closer ties with Australia

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KYli said:

It is a joke. Google, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram are far worse violators for so many years. If the US wanted to ban TikTok, do it and be done with it.

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