Mongolia: Issues for Congress
Susan V. Lawrence
Specialist in Asian Affairs
June 17, 2014
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R41867
Mongolia: Issues for Congress
Summary
Mongolia is a sparsely populated young democracy in a remote part of Asia, sandwiched between
two powerful large neighbors, China and Russia. It made its transition to democracy and free
market reforms peacefully in 1990, after nearly 70 years as a Soviet satellite state. A quarter of a
century later, the predominantly Tibetan Buddhist nation remains the only formerly Communist
Asian nation to have embraced democracy. Congress has shown a strong interest in Mongolia
since 1990, funding assistance programs, approving the transfer of excess defense articles,
ratifying a bilateral investment treaty, passing legislation to extend permanent normal trade
relations, and passing seven resolutions commending Mongolia’s progress and supporting strong
U.S.-Mongolia relations.
Congressional interest is Mongolia has focused on the country’s story of democratic
development. Since passing a democratic constitution in 1992, Mongolia has held six direct
presidential elections and six direct parliamentary elections. The State Department considers
Mongolia’s most recent elections to have been generally “free and fair” and said that in 2013,
Mongolia “generally respected” freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association. It raised
concerns, however, about corruption and lack of transparency in government affairs.
On the economic front, Mongolia’s mineral wealth, including significant reserves of coal, copper,
gold, and uranium, offers investment opportunities for American companies. Foreign investors
and the U.S. government have criticized Mongolia’s unpredictable investment climate, however.
In the fall of 2013, Mongolia passed a new investment law and, after years of negotiations, signed
a transparency agreement with the United States. Both developments served to reassure investors,
although the Mongolian parliament has yet to ratify the transparency agreement.
Mongolia was among the first nations to join the coalition for the Iraq War and its troops have
been deployed in Afghanistan since 2003. It is also an active contributor of troops to United
Nations Peacekeeping Operations and, with the United States, hosts an annual multinational
peacekeeping exercise in Mongolia known as Khaan Quest.
Mongolia is an active participant in many international organizations, in which it often supports
U.S. positions. It has also been an active member of international groupings dedicated to
promoting democracy, including the Community of Democracies, for which it held the rotating
chairmanship from 2011 to 2013. In the summer of 2014, Mongolia is scheduled to take over the
rotating chairmanship of the Freedom Online Coalition, which describes itself as “an inter-
governmental coalition committed to advancing Internet freedom—free expression, association,
assembly, and privacy online—worldwide.” Mongolia is also in the process of joining the Open
Government Partnership, a White House-backed multilateral initiative.
Mongolia seeks to maintain “balanced relations” with its two immediate neighbors, China and
Russia. China has emerged as Mongolia’s largest trading partner and foreign investor. Russia is
Mongolia’s largest source of energy products. Mongolia has diplomatic relations with both North
and South Korea and has sought to play a role in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. To
ensure its continued independence and sovereignty, Mongolia has also prioritized the
development of relations with so-called “third neighbors,” countries that do not border Mongolia,
but have close ties to Mongolia. That list includes the United States. In 1992, Mongolia declared
itself a single-state nuclear-weapons-free zone; in 2012, the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council each pledged to respect the designation.
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Contents
Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Democratic Development ................................................................................................................ 2
Challenges to Democracy and Human Rights ........................................................................... 2
The Corruption Case Against Former President Enkhbayar ...................................................... 3
Institutions and Electoral Procedures ........................................................................................ 4
Election Outcomes ..................................................................................................................... 5
Economic Issues .............................................................................................................................. 6
Investment Climate .................................................................................................................... 8
2013 Investment Law .......................................................................................................... 8
U.S.-Mongolia Transparency Agreement ............................................................................ 9
Flagship Mining Projects ......................................................................................................... 10
Oyu Tolgoi Copper and Gold Deposit ............................................................................... 10
Tavan Tolgoi Coal Deposit ................................................................................................ 10
Military Engagement ..................................................................................................................... 11
Contributions to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .................................................................. 11
Contributions to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations .................................................... 12
Foreign Policy ................................................................................................................................ 13
Participation in International Organizations ............................................................................ 14
Participation in International Democracy Promotion Initiatives ............................................. 15
Relations with the United States .............................................................................................. 15
High-level Visits ................................................................................................................ 16
Major Bilateral Agreements .............................................................................................. 17
U.S. Assistance to Mongolia ............................................................................................. 18
Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact ................................................................... 19
Select U.S. Government Programs in Mongolia ............................................................... 19
Relations with Russia .............................................................................................................. 20
Relations with China ............................................................................................................... 21
Ties to Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama........................................................................ 21
Relations with Japan ................................................................................................................ 22
Relations with the Koreas ........................................................................................................ 23
Nuclear-Weapons-Free Status.................................................................................................. 24
Tables
Table 1. Mongolia’s Trade with Select Major Partners in 2013 ....................................................... 6
Table 2. Mongolian Participation in Coalition Missions ............................................................... 12
Table 3. Current Mongolian Participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Missions .................. 13
Table 4. Visits to Mongolia by Senior U.S. Executive Branch Officials ....................................... 16
Table 5. Visits to the United States by Senior Mongolian Officials .............................................. 17
Table 6. U.S. Bilateral Foreign Assistance to Mongolia FY2009-FY2012 ................................... 18
Table A-1. Select Legislation Related to Mongolia from the 102nd Congress to the Present ........ 25
Table B-1. Results of Direct Presidential Elections ....................................................................... 28
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Table B-2. Results of Direct Parliamentary Elections 1992-Present ............................................. 28
Appendixes
Appendix A. Select Legislation on Mongolia ................................................................................ 25
Appendix B. Results of Mongolian Elections 1992-Present ......................................................... 28
Contacts
Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 30
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Mongolia: Issues for Congress
Overview
Mongolia is a vast, sparsely populated, mineral-rich nation
Mongolia: Basic Information1
sandwiched between Russia and China. Formerly a Soviet
Population (2012): 2.796 million
satellite state, the country peacefully ended one-party
Nominal GDP (2012 est.): $10.27 billion
Communist rule and launched democratic and free market
reforms in 1990. Congress has shown strong support for
Per capita GDP (2012): $3,160
Mongolia since that date through funding of assistance
GDP growth rate (2013 est.): 12.5%
programs, approval for the transfer of excess defense
Projected GDP growth rates: 10.3% for
articles, ratification of a bilateral investment treaty,
2014; 10% for 2015; 7.7% for 2016
extension of permanent normal trade relations, and House,
Inflation (2013): 9.6%
Senate, and concurrent resolutions commending Mongolia
on its development of democracy and expressing support
Percent of population at or below
for expanded U.S.-Mongolia relations. (See Appendix A
national poverty line (2012): 27.4
for a list of significant legislation related to Mongolia from
Predominant religion: Tibetan Buddhist
the 102nd Congress to the present.) Mongolia’s is one of 16
(55.1% of population)
parliaments worldwide that have been partnered with the
U.S. House Democracy Partnership, a bipartisan, 20-member commission of the U.S. House of
Representatives that has worked to support the development of “effective, independent, and
responsive legislative institutions.”2
U.S. interests in Mongolia include what a 2011 U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement refers to as
“common values and shared strategic interests.” Most prominent is the two nations’ “common
interest in protecting and promoting freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide.”3
Mongolia is the only formerly Communist Asian nation to have transitioned to democracy, and
regards itself as a potential role model for the nations of Central Asia, and even China and North
Korea, as well as for nations in other regions of the world attempting democratic transitions. In a
statement issued after Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj’s re-election in 2013, President
Obama stated that, “Through its impressive democratic achievements and its progress on
economic liberalization, Mongolia serves as a significant example of positive reform and
transformation for peoples around the world.”4
As Mongolia begins to approve deals for development of its so far largely untapped mineral
wealth, estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the United States has an interest in
strengthening the investment climate for U.S. businesses in Mongolia. The United States also has
an interest in many aspects of Mongolia’s engagement with the broader international community.
Mongolia has contributed troops to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to global United
Nations Peacekeeping Operations. It has supported U.S. positions in international organizations
such as the United Nations, and embraced international democracy promotion initiatives.
1 Economic data is from The World Bank, “Data: Mongolia,” http://data.worldbank.org/country/mongolia, accessed
June 5, 2014; religion data is from The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, The Global Religious Landscape: A
Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010, December 2012,
http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf.
2 For more information, see the website of the House Democracy Partnership: http://hdac.house.gov/.
3 The White House, “U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement,” June 16, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
2011/06/16/us-mongolia-joint-statement.
4 The White House, “Statement by President on the Presidential Election in Mongolia,” June 27, 2013,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/27/statement-president-presidential-election-mongolia.
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Uranium-rich Mongolia also has taken a strong stance in support of nuclear non-proliferation. As
a nation with diplomatic relations with both North and South Korea, Mongolia has sought to
support peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. With a majority Tibetan Buddhist population
and close ties to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Mongolia also has a strong
interest in Tibet’s future.
Democratic Development
For nearly 70 years, Mongolia was a one-party state ruled by the communist Mongolian People’s
Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Mongolia’s democratic revolution began with Eastern Europe-
inspired street protests in western Mongolia in December 1989, which then spread to the capital,
Ulaanbaatar. The MPRP’s Politburo chose to resign en masse in March 1990. Since then,
Mongolia has made a rapid transition from one-party Communist rule to multi-party
parliamentary democracy. In May 1990, constitutional amendments ended the MPRP’s monopoly
on power and created an indirectly-elected presidency. In 1992, a new democratic constitution
guaranteed a broad set of rights and freedoms, created a directly-elected presidency, and
established a multi-party, directly-elected, unicameral legislature, the State Great Hural (SGH).5
Since then, Mongolia has held six direct presidential elections and six direct parliamentary
elections. (See Appendix B for the results of all ten elections.)
Mongolia’s revised “National Security Concept,” passed by the Mongolian parliament in 2010,
reaffirmed Mongolia’s commitment to democracy, stating that, “Parliamentary governance built
on respect for human rights and freedoms, the rule of law, as well as a democratic state structure
built on social stability shall be the pre-eminent guarantee for the assurance of national security.”6
Congress has passed resolutions congratulating Mongolia on a series of largely free and fair
elections, and the State Department said that in 2013, Mongolia “generally respected” freedoms
of speech, press, assembly, and association.7
Challenges to Democracy and Human Rights
Mongolia’s democratic development remains a work in progress. In its report on human rights
practices in Mongolia in 2013, the State Department highlighted three serious human rights
problems facing Mongolia: “police abuse of detainees, widespread corruption, and a lack of
transparency in government affairs.” According to the report, “Ample documentation establishes
both that corruption was widespread and that the perception and reality of corruption were serious
drags on democratic and economic development.” Such issues are a concern to those who see a
strong Mongolian democracy as vital to keeping Mongolia a neutral, sovereign country that is
able to stand up for its interests in the face of its powerful neighbors, China and Russia. (For more
information about Mongolia’s efforts to increase government transparency, see “U.S.-Mongolia
Transparency Agreement” and “Participation in International Democracy Promotion” below.)
5 Also sometimes rendered as State Great Khural or the Mongolian Great Khural or Mongolian Great Hural.
6 National Security Concept of Mongolia, July 15, 2010. English translation provided by the Embassy of Mongolia to
the United States.
7 U.S. Department of State, 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mongolia, February 27, 2014,
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2013&dlid=220215.
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In a USAID-supported survey of the Mongolian business community in May 2013, 69.1% of
respondents said that they “always” or “often” encountered corruption in public sector tenders
and contracting, and 62.4% of respondents said they believed that steps taken by the government
to control corruption were “hardly effective” or “not at all effective.” The report warned that
private sector corruption “makes Mongolia vulnerable to bad governance and chronic income
inequality among citizens.”8 Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2013
ranked Mongolia 83rd of 177 countries in the index, with the top ranked country (Denmark) being
the least corrupt. Mongolia shared its ranking with seven other nations: Burkina Faso, El
Salvador, Jamaica, Liberia, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zambia.9 Other concerns raised in the
State Department report include, “arbitrary arrests; poor conditions in detention centers;
government interference with the media; religious discrimination (including continued refusal by
some provincial governments to register Christian churches); denial of exit visas and immigration
holds on foreign citizens; inadequate measures to counter domestic violence against women;
trafficking in persons; discrimination against persons with disabilities; and violence and
discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons.”10
The Corruption Case Against Former President Enkhbayar
In April 2012, Mongolia’s Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) arrested former
President Nambaryn Enkhbayar and charged him with corruption and fraud.11 Enkhbayar, who
served as president from 2005 to 2009, as speaker of the parliament from 2004-2005, and as
Prime Minister from 2000-2004, remains the most high-profile figure in Mongolia ever to be
charged with corruption. His case ignited impassioned debate in Mongolia. Some saw it as an
object lesson in the difficulty of holding a politically powerful and internationally-connected
figure to account. Others saw it as a politically-driven vendetta that brought into question
Mongolia’s commitment to human rights and the rule of law.
Immediately after the former president’s arrest, his supporters denounced the charges as
politically motivated. His son, a United States-educated banker, described the government’s
treatment of his father as “a purge” and alleged that the government sought “to keep him away
from the election and remove him from politics.”12 Enkhbayar was then, and remains today, head
of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), a breakaway party formed in 2011after
the original MPRP changed its name to the Mongolian People’s Party. Enkhbayar’s arrest came
two months before parliamentary elections and it made him ineligible to run for office. Had
Enkhbayar been able to stand and had he won a seat, he would have gained parliamentary
immunity. The IAAC stated that it had sought to question Enkhbayar for months, and arrested
him only after he repeatedly ignored its summonses.
8 The Asia Foundation, Study of Private Perceptions of Corruption, September 2013, http://asiafoundation.org/
publications/pdf/1199.
9 Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2013, http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2013/results/.
10 U.S. Department of State, 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mongolia, February 27, 2014,
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2013&dlid=220215.
11 The Independent Authority Against Corruption, Press Release, May 11, 2012, http://www.iaac.mn/index.php?coid=
1618&cid=17.
12 Dan Levin, “Ex-Leader’s Detention Tests Mongolia’s Budding Democracy,” The New York Times, May 13, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/world/asia/mongolias-democracy-tested-by-ex-presidents-arrest.html.
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Enkhbayar was convicted at his first trial in August 2012 and sentenced to four years in prison.
On appeal before the Supreme Court in December 2012, he was again convicted and this time
sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. Throughout the process, his supporters alleged a
variety of official abuses, from denial of adequate medical care, to denial of access to family and
legal counsel, to judicial bias and procedural problems. Influential figures in the international
community, including UN Secretary General Bank Ki-moon, expressed concern about the
government’s treatment of the former president. In its 2012 report on human rights practices in
Mongolia, however, the State Department stated that, “Observers of the four postponement
hearings and trials, which were televised and open to the public, generally found the process in
compliance with law.”13
With Enkhbayar reportedly in ill health, President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj issued a terse decree on
August 1, 2013 pardoning him and ordering him released from the remainder of his sentence.14
Canadian Mongolia expert Julian Dierkes explained the pardon as a move that “deflects
accusations against Elbegdorj and the DP [Democratic Party] that they are partisan in their pursuit
of anti-corruption measures and makes the president look more like a head of state above the
political fray.”15 Enkhbayar subsequently traveled to South Korea for medical treatment, where he
remains today. He has been reported to be planning a political comeback.16
Institutions and Electoral Procedures
Presidential elections are held every four years, with the next presidential election scheduled for
2017. Each political party represented in Mongolia’s parliament is permitted to nominate one
candidate, with the winner requiring a simple majority of the popular vote. The President serves
as head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and head of the National Security
Council. He can veto all or some of laws passed by parliament, although parliament may override
his veto. He may serve no more than two terms of four years each. One of the quirks of the
Mongolian system is that the President is required to give up his party affiliation upon taking
office.
Elections to Mongolia’s Parliament, the State Great Hural, are held every four years in June, with
the next election scheduled for 2016. The State Great Hural has 76 members representing 26
multi-member constituencies. Once the State Great Hural is elected, members choose a speaker,
the chairman of the State Great Hural, who ranks second in the state hierarchy and serves as an ex
officio member of the National Security Council. The State Great Hural also nominates the prime
minister and the cabinet, who are formally proposed to the State Great Hural by the president.
The State Great Hural meets semi-annually for sessions of at least 75 days.17
13 U.S. Department of State, 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mongolia, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/
rls/hrrpt/2012humanrightsreport/index.htm#wrapper; James T. Areddy, “Mongolia Was Under Pressure Over
Presidential Detention,” The Wall Street Journal blogs, May 15, 2012, http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2012/05/15/
mongolia-was-under-pressure-over-presidential-detention/.
14 The Office of the President of Mongolia, Public Relations & Communications Division, “Decree of the President of
Mongolia,” August 1, 2013, http://www.president.mn/eng/newsCenter/viewNews.php?newsId=934.
15 Julian Dierkes, “Does Presidential Pardon Bring End to Enkhbayar Saga?” Mongolia Focus blog, August 15, 2013,
http://blogs.ubc.ca/mongolia/2013/end-enkhbayar-saga/.
16 “Enkhbayar Promises Political Comeback,” January 6, 2014, News.mn, http://english.news.mn/content/166816.shtml
17 Parliament of Mongolia - State Great Hural, webpage for the 19th annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary
Forum, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 23-27 January 2011, text dated November 13, 2010, http://19appf.parliament.mn/
(continued...)
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Election Outcomes
The formerly Communist MPRP, which changed its name to the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP)
in December 2010, won three of the presidential elections since 1992 and won the most seats in
four of the parliamentary elections. Since 2012, the Democratic Party has controlled the positions
of President, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the State Great Hural. In the most recent
parliamentary election in June 2012, the Democratic Party won 33 of the 76 seats in the State
Great Hural. It leads a coalition government including the Justice Coalition (comprised of a new
MPRP party, formed in early 2011 by a faction that split from the re-named MPP, and the
Mongolian National Democratic Party) and the Civil Will-Green Party. The MPP, with 25 seats,
now serves as the opposition party. President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Mongolia’s first president
from the Democratic Party, was re-elected to a second four-year term in June 2013. (See text box,
Mongolia’s Leaders.)
Mongolia’s Leaders18
President: Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of the Democratic Party (since May 2009)
Born in 1963, Elbegdorj is the first president of Mongolia from the Democratic Party. A former journalist, Elbegdorj
was one of the original 13 leaders of the 1990 democratic revolution. He led the Democratic Union Coalition (DUC)
to a historic victory over the formerly communist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party in parliamentary elections
in 1996. Elbegdorj served twice as Prime Minister, first for a brief period in 1998 and again from 2004-2006. Elbegdorj
studied journalism at a military academy in the Soviet Union from 1983-1988, in the city of Lviv, which is now in
western Ukraine. In 2002 he earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University. As a member of a smal western Mongolian tribe, the Zahchin, he is the first president not to be a
member of the dominant ethnic group in Mongolia, the Khalkha.19 Elbegdorj won re-election in 2013. He is limited to
two terms in office, which would end in 2017.
Prime Minister: Norovyn Altankhuyag of the Democratic Party (since August 2012)
Born in 1958, Altankhuyag has served as leader of the Democratic Party since 2008. He is a former teacher of
biophysics and physics at the National University of Mongolia who played a prominent role in the 1990 democratic
revolution. Before becoming Prime Minister, Altankhuyag served as Minister of Finance (2004-2006) and Minister of
Agriculture and Industry (1996-2000), and was elected three times to Mongolia’s parliament, the State Great Hural
(1996, 2008, and 2012).20
Chairman of the State Great Hural: Zandaakhuu Enkhbold of the Democratic Party (since 2012)
Born in 1966, Enkhbold has been a member of parliament since 2004. He served as Chairman of the State Great
Hural’s Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy from 2008 to 2011. Originally trained as an electrical
engineer, Enkhbold earned a law degree from the National University of Mongolia in 1996 and an MBA from the
University of Denver in 2004. He served as Chairman of Mongolia’s State Property Committee from 1996 to 1999,
overseeing the country’s privatization process.21
(...continued)
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13:2010-11-13-06-10-11&catid=13:2010-11-13-04-15-34&Itemid=
26.
18 Biographical data from Alan J.K. Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, 3rd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc.,
2010).
19 Uradyn E. Bulag, “Mongolia in 2009: From Landlocked to Land-linked Cosmopolitan,” vol. 50, no. 1 (2010), p. 98.
20 “The 27th Prime Minister of Mongolia Norov Altankhuyag Starts His Office Term,” InfoMongolia.com, August 10,
2012, http://www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/4725.
21 Official website of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia, http://www.parliament.mn/en/who.
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Economic Issues
Mongolia has vast mineral wealth which, if managed well, could allow it to evolve into an
increasingly wealthy democracy. The country boasts reserves of coal, copper, gold, tin, and
uranium, as well as reserves of molybdenum, silver, iron, phosphates, nickel, zinc, wolfram,
fluorspar, and petroleum, only a small fraction of which have been developed. It also has reserves
of rare earth elements, although their size is not yet known. In the short-term, however, Mongolia
is grappling with declining foreign direct investment, weak mineral exports, and a resulting
serious imbalance in its balance of payments. In addition, according to the World Bank, “Macro-
economic and financial vulnerabilities are growing due to continuous expansionary fiscal and
monetary policies reflected in significant off-budget spending and rapid credit growth.”22
Table 1. Mongolia’s Trade with Select Major Partners in 2013
(In USD millions)
Reporting
Imports from
Exports to
Change in Total
Country
Mongolia
Mongolia Total
Trade
Trade Over 2012
China
3,497 2,449 5,946
-9.79%
Russia 37
1,553
1,590
-20.43%
South Korea
27
399
426
-12.45%
Japan 19
299
319
-14.00%
United States
20
282
302
-57.30%
Source: Global Trade Atlas.
Notes: Trade figures are those reported by each country. They may differ from Mongolian trade figures.
In the medium- to long-term, Mongolia faces several existential questions related to its economic
development. One is how to avoid the “natural resource curse” that has afflicted some other
resource-rich countries, involving such problems as currency pressures, ballooning government
budgets, corruption, and environmental degradation. Mongolia is experiencing a taste of all those
issues now, but economists do not judge it yet to be in the full throes of a “natural resource
curse.” A second challenge is how, in a democracy, to balance the need for legal guarantees for
foreign investors with the perceived need to be responsive to popular pressure to renegotiate or
otherwise change the terms of contracts in order to provide the Mongolian state and public with
greater rewards, particularly in extractive industries.
Another third challenge is how to overcome constraints related to Mongolia’s land-locked status
and limited domestic transportation networks. All goods leaving or entering Mongolia must
traverse the territory of one of Mongolia’s two powerful neighbors, China and Russia. (Mongolia
is separated from Kazakhstan in the west by 30 miles of Russian territory.) Within Mongolia, to
get to either neighbor’s border, goods must currently be either trucked on mostly unpaved roads,
or transported on one of just two railway lines. Mongolia’s main railway is a single-track, with
passing places, which runs 690 miles from the Russian border in the north to the Chinese border
in the south. An eastern railway runs 148 miles from Choybalsan to the Russian border. New rail
22 The World Bank Group in Mongolia, Mongolia Economic Update November 2013, http://documents.worldbank.org/
curated/en/2013/11/18485265/mongolia-economic-update.
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lines to the Chinese border and to the North-South rail line, are under construction, with two to
the Chinese border slated for completion in 2014. (See Figure 1 below for a map of Mongolia.)
A final existential challenge is how to stave off economic domination by neighboring China, the
world’s second largest economy, and lessen Mongolia’s heavy dependence on Russia for energy
supplies. China is currently both Mongolia’s largest foreign investor and its biggest trading
partner. The almost $6 billion in two-way trade between Mongolia and China is nearly four times
the volume of trade between Mongolia and its second largest trading partner, Russia. (See Table 1
below.) As of mid-2012, Chinese investment in Mongolia accounted for just under one third of
total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.23 Mongolia’s National Security Concept
document, adopted in 2010, directs the government to, “Design a strategy whereby the investment
of any foreign country does not exceed one third of overall foreign investment in Mongolia.”24
Figure 1. Map of Mongolia
Showing Railways and Major Mineral Reserves
23 Economic and Commercial Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2013 Mongolia Investment
Climate Statement, U.S. Department of State, January 15, 2013, http://photos.state.gov/libraries/mongolia/805999/
PDFs/mics_2013.pdf, citing statistics from the Foreign Investment Registration and Review Department of Mongolia’s
Ministry of Economic Development.
24 National Security Concept of Mongolia, 2010. English translation provided by the Embassy of Mongolia to the
United States.
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Investment Climate
Mongolia has sought to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) as a way to raise capital for
exploitation of its mineral resources, introduce financial and managerial expertise and new
technologies, and diversify its economic partners. Government officials and Members of
Parliament have periodically registered their concerns about the terms of completed investments,
however, including calling for renegotiation of the terms of Mongolia’s flagship foreign-invested
project, a massive copper and gold mine project at Oyu Tolgoi. (See “Oyu Tolgoi Copper and
Gold Deposit” below.) In addition, Mongolia’s parliament has in recent years passed new laws
and amended existing laws and regulations in ways that foreign investors see as sometimes
curtailing previously-granted rights. In January 2013, the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia described
the regulatory environment for foreign investment in Mongolia as “extremely chaotic,
characterized by abrupt, non-transparent attempts to change laws.”25 As investor concerns about
Mongolia’s investment climate have grown, FDI in Mongolia fell in 2013 by about 55%. The
Asian Development Bank attributed the sharp decline to “uncertainties” related to the regulatory
framework for foreign investment, as well as to slower growth in neighboring China, the
completion of the first phase of construction of the Oyu Tolgoi mine, and delays in launching the
second phase of the mine project.26 Alarmed by the drop, and responding to pressure from
worried investors and from the U.S. government, Mongolia took two steps in the fall of 2013 that
are credited with improving perceptions of its investment climate. They were the Mongolian
parliament’s October 2013 passage of a new investment law and Mongolia’s September 2013
signing of a transparency agreement with the United States.
2013 Investment Law
The 2013 Mongolian Law on Investment replaced a 1993 foreign investment law and a
controversial 2012 law, the Strategic Entities Foreign Investment Law of Mongolia (SEFIL). The
U.S. government had raised serious concerns about SEFIL, with the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia
reporting in January 2013 that investors feared SEFIL “may bar them from participating in key
sectors of the Mongolian economy or force divestment of Mongolian assets and equities in the
affected sectors.” Because of SEFIL, the U.S. Embassy warned at the time, “both foreign and
domestic investors consider Mongolia a riskier place to invest than it once was; and perhaps
riskier than similar emerging markets.”27
Under the new investment law, approvals are no longer required for foreign private investment in
Mongolia, and private investments are permitted in any production or services sector not
prohibited by law, with prohibited sectors limited to narcotics, gambling, pornography, and
pyramid sales and marketing. Foreign state-owned companies, defined as “a legal entity in which
a foreign state directly or indirectly holds more than 50 percent of the entities issued shares,” are
subject to restrictions that do not apply to private firms; they must seek approval for investments
25 Economic and Commercial Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2013 Mongolia Investment
Climate Statement, U.S. Department of State, January 15, 2013, http://photos.state.gov/libraries/mongolia/805999/
PDFs/mics_2013.pdf.
26 Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Outlook 2014: Mongolia, April 2014, http://www.adb.org/sites/
default/files/ado2014-mongolia.pdf
27 Economic and Commercial Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2013 Mongolia Investment
Climate Statement, U.S. Department of State, January 15, 2013, http://photos.state.gov/libraries/mongolia/805999/
PDFs/mics_2013.pdf.
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of more than 33% in the sectors of minerals, banking and finance, and media and
telecommunications. The law also provides greater legal guarantees for investments than the laws
it replaces; a stable tax environment for up to 18 years, depending on the volume and geographic
location of investments; and tax and non-tax incentives for investments. In an analysis of the new
law, the multinational law firm Hogan Lovells described it as “a positive step in streamlining the
investment environment and creating more favorable investment conditions.” The analysis noted,
however, that “effective implementation is subject to further regulations” and that investors
would be watching for, “consistent application of the Investment Law and a stable operating
environment.”28
U.S.-Mongolia Transparency Agreement
After years of negotiations, the United States and Mongolian governments in September 2013
signed what is formally known as the “Agreement on Transparency in Matters Related to
International Trade and Investment between the United States of America and Mongolia.” The
United States, which pushed hard for the transparency agreement, had originally hoped to sign it
before Mongolian President Elbegdorj’s visit to the White House in June 2011. Although the
agreement is now signed, it is still awaiting ratification by the Mongolian parliament.
The transparency agreement commits both countries to allow “a reasonable opportunity” for
public comment on proposed regulations related to trade and investment, requires the text of the
proposed regulations and the text of accompany rationales for the proposed regulations to be
published in English at least 60 days in advance of when public comments are due, and requires
both governments to accept comments solely in English. It also requires publication in English of
all regulations adopted, and commits the two governments to take steps to combat bribery and
corruption. A press release from the United States Trade Representative stated that the
requirement that regulations be published in English “should make it easier for U.S and other
foreign enterprises to do business in, and invest in, Mongolia.” According to USTR, the
transparency agreement with Mongolia “represents the first time that the United States has
concluded a stand-alone agreement addressing transparency in matters related to international
trade and investment.”29 Mongolian officials privately suggest that with the transparency
agreement, the United States is seeking to hold Mongolia to a higher standard than other nations.
They see the requirements for English translations as particularly onerous.
For the United States, the transparency agreement is a necessary step toward a possible future
free-trade agreement (FTA) with Mongolia, the only member of the World Trade Organization
that is not yet a party to any FTA. Mongolia has long sought FTA negotiations with the United
States, and was disappointed that plans for such negotiations were not included in USTR’s
Strategic Plan for FY2013 to FY2017.30 Observers expect Mongolia’s first FTA to be with Japan.
28 Anthony Woolley and Solongoo Bayarsaikhan, Mongolia Revises Its Regulatory Framework for Foreign and
Domestic Investment,” Hogan Lovells, October 2013, http://www.hoganlovells.com/files/Uploads/Documents/
13.11.01_F_Mongolia_revises_its_regulatory_framework_for_foreign_and_domestic_investment_October_2013.pdf.
An unofficial English translation of the law is available on the website of the Mongolian Embassy to the United States,
at http://www.mongolianembassy.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/MONGOLIAN-LAW-ON-INVESTMENT.pdf.
29 United States Trade Representative, “United States, Mongolia Sign Transparency Agreement,” September 24, 2014,
http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2013/september/united-states-mongolia-sign-transparency-
agreeme.
30 Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Strategic Plan FY2013-FY2017, http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/
USTR%20FY%202013%20-%20FY%202017%20Strategic%20Plan%20final.pdf.
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Mongolia and Japan have held six rounds of Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, with
completion of the negotiations reportedly possible in 2014.
Flagship Mining Projects
Two major mineral deposits have dominated headlines about Mongolia for several years. The
Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold deposit and the Tavan Tolgoi coking coal deposit, both in
Mongolia’s South Gobi Desert, account for a large proportion of Mongolia’s hundreds of billions
of dollars of untapped mineral reserves.31 Beyond the potential profits involved, the projects have
been widely viewed as important indicators of Mongolia’s evolving attitude toward foreign
investment. The U.S. government has expressed a particularly strong interest in Tavan Tolgoi
because a U.S. company, St. Louis, Missouri-based Peabody Energy, is one of the companies
competing for the rights to develop part of the deposit.
Oyu Tolgoi Copper and Gold Deposit
The Oyu Tolgoi deposit, commonly referred to as “OT,” is believed to be the second largest
copper deposit in the world after the Escondido copper mine in Chile. Under a multi-billion dollar
2009 deal, the deposit was to be developed jointly by Ivanhoe Mines of Canada (now known as
Turquoise Hill Resources), the Australia-based Rio Tinto Group (which holds a 51% controlling
stake in Turquoise Hill Resources), and the Government of Mongolia, which holds a 34% stake in
the OT project. Construction of the first phase of the project began in 2010, and production began
in June 2013. According to the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia’s January 2013 Mongolia Investment
Climate Statement, however, “doubts persist over both the GOM’s [Government of Mongolia’s]
commitment to honoring the OT Investment Agreement (IA) and its ability to manage public
expectations over mining revenues and related development.”32 The Government of Mongolia and
Rio Tinto have been involved in contentious negotiations over financing of a $5.1 billion
expansion of the mine, with resolution elusive. The dispute, which is being closely monitored by
the foreign business community, is widely believed to have contributed to Mongolia’s steep drop
in foreign direct investment in 2013 and early 2014.
Tavan Tolgoi Coal Deposit
The Tavan Tolgoi deposit, commonly referred to as “TT,” is believed to contain 6 billion metric
tons of coal, including the world’s largest untapped deposit of coking coal, which is in demand by
steelmakers in China, Japan, and South Korea. In late 2008, the Mongolian parliament authorized
the government to negotiate with strategic investors for rights to develop part of the deposit. In
31 In Congressional testimony in March, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that, “According to some
estimates, Mongolia has about $400 billion worth of minerals in the ground.” The State Department says that figure
does not include the value of Mongolia’s so far largely un-surveyed rare earth minerals deposits. The same month, a
Chinese coal analyst quoted in the official China Daily estimated the total value of the Tavan Tolgoi deposit alone at
$300 billion. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell, “Asia Overview: Protecting American Interests in China
and Asia,” Testimony Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, March
31, 2011, http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2011/03/159450.htm; Du Juan, “Shenhua Shortlisted in Bid to Develop
Mongolian Coalfield,” China Daily, March 24, 2011.
32 See Economic and Commercial Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2013 Mongolia Investment
Climate Statement, U.S. Department of State, January 15, 2013, http://photos.state.gov/libraries/mongolia/805999/
PDFs/mics_2013.pdf
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March 2011, the government shortlisted six bidders for rights to develop the deposit’s west
Tsankhi block, which has an estimated 1.2 billion tons of coal. In addition to Peabody Energy,
other shortlisted bidders included a Chinese-Japanese consortium, a Korean-Russian-Japanese
consortium, and firms from Brazil and Europe.33 Whatever bidder, or combination of bidders,
wins the development rights, the multi-billion dollar development of Tavan Tolgoi is expected to
generate significant demand for construction and mining equipment from foreign suppliers.
Development will also generate investment opportunities in such areas as power generation,
water supply, and rail transport. For now, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia, the delays
in awarding development rights for TT are contributing to concern that the government of
Mongolia “lacks both the will and the capacity to execute multiple reforms and projects.”34
Military Engagement
Mongolia’s 2011 Concept of Foreign Policy document decrees that, “In the absence of an
immediate military threat, Mongolia will adopt a strategy of non-participation in any military
alliance, non-use of its territory or air space against any state, non-entry, non-stationing or non-
transiting of foreign troops across its territory.” Mongolia has won significant goodwill from the
United States and its allies for its participation in coalition operations and contributions to United
Nations peacekeeping operations around the globe.
Contributions to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
Mongolia was one of the first countries to join the allied coalition for the Iraq War, rotating nearly
1,200 troops through 10 consecutive deployments in Iraq between August 2003 and September
2008. Mongolian troops continue to serve in Afghanistan, where they have been deployed since
2003 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and the International Security Assistance Force
in Afghanistan. They also served with the Kosovo Force in Europe.
In an acknowledgement of the importance that the United States attaches to Mongolia’s
contributions to coalition operations and UN peacekeeping operations, Secretary of Defense
Chuck Hagel visited Mongolia in April 2014 and, with his Mongolian counterpart, issued a “Joint
Vision Statement for the U.S.-Mongolia Security Relationship.” In the statement, the Department
of Defense said it was “grateful for Mongolia’s support,” including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The
statement also said the United States “commends Mongolia” for stating that if coalition forces
remain in Afghanistan after 2014, it is willing to continue contributing personnel. In the
statement, the United States said it welcomed Mongolian defense reform and supports improving
military education for Mongolian forces.35
33 Min-Jeong Lee, “Six in the Running for Mongolia Coal Project,” The Wall Street Journal Online, March 7, 2011. Du
Juan, “Shenhua Shortlisted in Bid to Develop Mongolian Coalfield,” China Daily, March 24, 2011.
34 Economic and Commercial Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2013 Mongolia Investment
Climate Statement, U.S. Department of State, January 15, 2013, http://photos.state.gov/libraries/mongolia/805999/
PDFs/mics_2013.pdf.
35 Department of Defense, Joint Vision Statement for the U.S.-Mongolia Security Relationship,” April 10, 2014,
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/FINAL-US-Mongolia-Joint-Vision-Statement-V7.pdf.
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Table 2. Mongolian Participation in Coalition Missions
Total Military
Mission
Dates of Participation
Personnel Deployed
Operation Iraqi Freedom
2003-2008
1192 troops and 3 staff
(OIF)
officers through 10
rotations
The Kosovo Force
2005-2007 72
troops
(KFOR)
Operation Enduring
2003 to present
1108 troops and 351
Freedom (OEF) and the
trainers through nine
International Security
rotations; 347 troops
Assistance Force (ISAF),
currently deployed
Afghanistan
Source: Embassy of Mongolia in the United States communication with CRS, May 9, 2014.
The Alaska National Guard has a partnership with Mongolia under the State Partnership Program.
That program pairs the National Guards of 48 states, three territories, and the District of
Columbia with active and reserve forces in 68 countries around the world. Alaskan National
Guard soldiers are serving as advisors for Mongolian troops in Afghanistan, and performed the
same role in Iraq. Mongolia and Alaska have conducted numerous exchanges to build capacity in
disaster response, health and medical care, and peacekeeping operations.36
Contributions to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
Mongolia has been an active contributor of military personnel to United Nations Peacekeeping
Missions. As of March 31, 2014, Mongolia had 928 troops and 10 United Nations Military
Experts serving in six UN Peacekeeping Operations. Mongolia is currently the 27th largest
contributor of military and police personnel to UN operations, despite its small population, with
approximately 10% of Mongolia’s 10,000 armed forces serving overseas in peacekeeping
operations at any one time.37 Past UN Peacekeeping missions to which Mongolia contributed
personnel include the missions in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Central African Republic and Chad
(MINURCAT), Sudan (UNMIS), Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), and Georgia (UNOMIG).
The April 2014 U.S.-Mongolia Joint Vision Statement pledged that the United States would
“continue to encourage and support Mongolia’s global peacekeeping deployments and its
humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities.”38 The Mongolian and U.S. militaries
jointly host Khaan Quest peacekeeping exercises in Mongolia each summer. The 2014 exercises,
scheduled to start on June 20, 2014, are expected to involve personnel from 19 countries,
36 Email from Lt. Col. Stephen Wilson, Alaska National Guard, October 22, 2010; Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill, National
Guard Bureau, Alaska, Mongolia partnership flourishes with shared challenges, The National Guard, February 28,
2008, http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2008/02/022808-alaska.aspx; National Guard, “State Partnership Program,”
http://www.nationalguard.mil/Leadership/JointStaff/J5/InternationalAffairsDivision/StatePartnershipProgram.aspx.
37 United Nations, “Contributors to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Monthly Summary of Contributions,”
March 31, 2014, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2014/mar14_1.pdf; United Nations, “Ranking of
Military and Police Contributions to UN Operations,” March 31, 2014, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
contributors/2014/mar14_2.pdf.
38 Department of Defense, Joint Vision Statement for the U.S.-Mongolia Security Relationship,” April 10, 2014,
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/FINAL-US-Mongolia-Joint-Vision-Statement-V7.pdf.
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including China.39 The Department of Defense also supports annual Gobi Wolf exercises, aimed
at improving Mongolia’s disaster preparedness.
Table 3. Current Mongolian Participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Missions
As of March 31, 2014
Number of Mongolian
UN Mission (Full
Personnel Currently
UN Mission (Acronym)
Name)
Dates of Participation
Deployed
MONUSCO United
Nations
2002 to present
2 military observers
Organization Stabilization
Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
MINURSO
United Nations Mission for 2003 to present
4 military observers
the Referendum in
Western Sahara
UNAMID African
Union/United
2010 to present
70 troops
Nations Hybrid Operation
in Darfur
UNMISS
United Nations Mission in
2011 to present
858 troops; 2 staff officers
the Republic of South
Sudan
UNISFA
United Nations Interim
2012 to present
1 military observer
Security Force for Abyei
UNAMO
United Nations Assistance
2012 to present
1 staff officer
Mission in Afghanistan
Source: United Nations, “Contributors to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Monthly Summary of
Contributions,” March 31, 2014, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2014/mar14_1.pdf; United
Nations, “Ranking of Military and Police Contributions to UN Operations,” March 31, 2014, http://www.un.org/
en/peacekeeping/contributors/2014/mar14_2.pdf.
Foreign Policy
Mongolia’s official formulation of its foreign policy, the Concept of Foreign Policy, updated and
approved by Mongolia’s parliament in 2011, presents the country’s “foreign political strategy” as
consisting of five elements.
• First, Mongolia seeks to build “balanced relations and wide-ranging good
neighbor cooperation” with both its immediate neighbors, Russia and China.
Russia is Mongolia’s largest source of energy products. Elsewhere in the Concept
document, Mongolia declares that, “While seeking to develop relations and
cooperation with global and regional influential states, Mongolia will avoid
becoming excessively reliant or dependent on any state.”
• Second, Mongolia seeks strong relations with “such Western and Eastern states
and coalitions as the United States, Japan, the European Union, India, Republic
of Korea and Turkey.” The document presents these relationships as being within
39 Email to CRS from the Embassy of Mongolia to the United States, May 8, 2014.
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the framework of Mongolia’s “third neighbor” policy, under which Mongolia
seeks to strengthen ties with democracies that do not share borders with
Mongolia, but that support its independence and sovereignty and can help to
balance the influence of China and Russia.
• In Asia, Mongolia seeks to “maintain friendly bilateral relations and cooperation”
with Asian neighbors, participate in multilateral cooperation, and support
“policies and activities aimed at strengthening strategic stability and security
cooperation in East Asia, Northeast Asia, and Central Asia.”
• Mongolia pledges to “cooperate actively with the United Nations” and “support
the increase of the United Nations’ role and responsibilities in world
governance.”
• Finally, Mongolia says it will work to develop relations with other developing
states, including through cooperation within the “Group of 77” developing
nations at the United Nations and within the Non-Aligned Movement.
The original 1994 version of the Concept of Foreign Policy document included a focus on
“reinforcing the positive legacy” of Mongolia’s past relations with formerly socialist countries.
That provision is missing from the 2011 version of the Concept.
Participation in International Organizations
Mongolia is an active participant in a wide range of international organizations, where it has
frequently been supportive of U.S. positions. According to a State Department tally, at the fall
2013 session of 68th U.N. General Assembly, on votes that the United States considers important,
Mongolia voted with the United States 83.3% of the time. By comparison, China voted with the
United States on important votes 30% of the time, and Russia voted with the United States 20%
of the time.40
Since its 1990 democratic revolution, Mongolia has joined such varied organizations and
groupings as the Asian Development Bank (1991), the World Trade Organization (1997), the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (1998), the International
Criminal Court (2002), the Asia Europe Meeting (2009), and the Organization for Security and
Co-Operation in Europe (2012). In 2004, it became an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, a group focused on Central Asia in which China and Russia are the dominant
members, but it has so far chosen not to pursue full membership in the organization.
Mongolia has sought U.S. support for its attempts to join several other organizations. High on
Mongolia’s wish list is membership in the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) grouping. Mongolia sees APEC membership as a way to boost its economic integration
with East Asia. The group currently has a moratorium on new members, however, and if or when
APEC does consider adding new members, Mongolia will likely be one among many potential
candidates. Other candidates are likely to include India, Brazil, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma, the
latter three being members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that are not
yet members of APEC.
40 Department of State, Voting Practices in the United Nations 2013, March, 2014, http://www.state.gov/documents/
organization/225048.pdf.
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Participation in International Democracy Promotion Initiatives
Under President Elbegdorj, Mongolia has made its support for democracy a prominent part of its
engagement with the international community. Examples include the following:
• From 2011 to 2013, Mongolia held the rotating chairmanship of the Community
of Democracies, an inter-governmental coalition of democratic countries
dedicated to “promoting democratic rules and strengthening democratic norms
and institutions around the world.”
• In May 2013, Mongolia began the process to join the Open Government
Partnership (OGP), a White House-backed, multilateral initiative that describes
itself as having been, “launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for
domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open,
accountable, and responsive to citizens.” Mongolia is currently developing its
first action plan under the partnership. It says the plan will prioritize improving
public service, increasing the transparency of public institutions, and enhancing
justice and reducing corruption.41
• In the summer of 2014, Mongolia is scheduled to take over the rotating
chairmanship of the Freedom Online Coalition, which describes itself as “an
inter-governmental coalition committed to advancing Internet freedom—free
expression, association, assembly, and privacy online—worldwide.” Mongolia is
scheduled to host the 5th Freedom Online Conference in its capital, Ulaanbaatar,
in the spring of 2015. Coalition member states are “committed to working
together diplomatically to voice concern over measures to restrict Internet
freedom and support those individuals whose human rights online are curtailed.”
The coalition was founded in 2011 in The Hague, The Netherlands. Mongolia
was one of 15 founding members. Japan is the only other Asian member.42
Relations with the United States
Mongolia says it considers the United States to be the most important of Mongolia’s “third
neighbors,” countries that do not share borders with Mongolia, but that Mongolia looks to for
support of its independence and sovereignty and for balance against the influence of China and
Russia. The United States established diplomatic relations with Mongolia in January 1987, after
the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union produced a cautious warming in Soviet-United
States relations. In that context, Moscow, which had previously objected to diplomatic relations
between Mongolia and the United States, softened its position. The United States Embassy in
Mongolia opened in September, 1988. Washington at that time saw the post as a useful vantage
point for monitoring the Sino-Soviet relationship and the new policies of glasnost and perestroika
41 Open Government Partnership website, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/ and
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/mongolia, accessed June 5, 2014. See also, The White House Office of the
Press Secretary, “Fact Sheet: The Open Government Partnership,” September 20, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov/
the-press-office/2011/09/20/fact-sheet-open-government-partnership.
42 E. Dari, “Mongolia to Chair Online Freedom Coalition,” The UB Post, April 30, 2014,
http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=8901; Website of the Freedom Online Coalition, http://www.freedomonline.ee/about-
us/Freedom-online-coalition; Freedom Online Coalition Chair’s Summary, April 28-29, 2014,
http://www.freedomonline.ee/sites/www.freedomonline.ee/files/docs/
FOC%20Chair's%20Summary%2009%2005%202014.pdf.
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emanating from Moscow. From the embassy, however, American diplomats found themselves
afforded an up-close view of Mongolia’s 1990 democratic revolution.43
Today, the United States and Mongolia have declared themselves to be in a “comprehensive
partnership based on common values and shared strategic interests,” language included in the
U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement issued during President Elbegdorj’s visit to the United States in
2011. The Joint Statement pronounced the two countries united in their interest in “protecting and
promoting freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide,” in their commitment to
“promoting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Asia-Pacific region,” and in their desire to work
together “to address their shared economic, security and development interests though multi-
lateral institutions in the Asia-Pacific, the United Nations, and elsewhere. The statement
highlighted U.S. gratitude to Mongolia for its participation in the international coalition in
Afghanistan, and for its role in UN Peacekeeping Operations, and Mongolian gratitude to the
United States for support provided under its 2008-2013 Millennium Challenge Corporation
Compact. The two sides pledged “to strengthen trade, investment and people-to-people ties.” 44
High-level Visits
A sign of the United States’ strong support for Mongolia’s young democracy is the fact that
Mongolia has hosted visits by multiple senior U.S. executive branch officials and Congressional
leaders since Mongolia’s democratic transition in 1990. See Table 4 below for a list of executive
branch visitors. House Speaker Dennis Hastert visited in 2005 and House Minority Leader John
Boehner in 2009. Members of Congress have also visited Mongolia under the auspices of the
House Democracy Partnership.
Table 4. Visits to Mongolia by Senior U.S. Executive Branch Officials
Since Mongolia’s 1990 Democratic Revolution
Offices
Names
Year of Visit
President
George W. Bush
2005
Vice-President Joe
Biden
2011
First Ladies
Hillary Clinton
1995
Laura Bush
2005
Secretaries of State
James Baker
1990 and 1991
Madeleine Albright
1998
Condoleeza Rice
2005
Hillary Clinton
2012
43 For a detailed account of the negotiations leading up to the establishment of diplomatic relations, and of the early
years of U.S.-Mongolian relations, see Alicia Campi and R. Baasan, The Impact of China and Russia on United States-
Mongolian Political Relations in the Twentieth Century (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), pp. 375-397. Campi was a
State Department official on temporary assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar at the time of the 1990
democratic revolution.
44 The White House, “U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement,” June 16, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
2011/06/16/us-mongolia-joint-statement.
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Offices
Names
Year of Visit
Secretaries of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
2005
Chuck Hagel
2014
Secretary of Agriculture (leading
Mike Johanns
2006
Presidential delegation)
Source: Media reports and U.S. government websites.
Table 5. Visits to the United States by Senior Mongolian Officials
Since Mongolia’s 1990 Democratic Revolution
Offices
Names
Year of Visit
Presidents Punsalmaagiyn
Ochirbat
1991
Natsagiin Bagabandi
2004
Nambaryn Enkhbayar
2007
Tsakhiagi n Elbegdorj
2011
Prime Ministers
Dash Byambasuren
1991
Puntsag Jasrai
1993
Mendsaikhan Enkhsaikhan
1996
Ryenchinnyam Amarjargal
1999
Nambaryn Enkhbayar
2001
Sanjaasuren Bayar
2008
Sukhbaatar Batbold
2011
Chairmen of the State Great
Radnaasumberel Gonchigdorj
1998
Hural
Damdin Demberel
2011
Zandaakhuu Enkhbold
2013
Ministers of Foreign Affairs
Tserenpil Gombosuren
1994
Ryenchinnyam Amarjargal
1998
Nyam-Osor Tuya
2000
Luvsan Erdenechuluun
2000
Sukhbaatar Batbold
2009
Minister of Defense
Luvsanvandan Bold
2011
Source: Embassy of Mongolia to the United States; U.S. government websites and media reports.
Major Bilateral Agreements
The Clinton Administration concluded a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Mongolia in 1994; the
Senate ratified it in 1996 (Senate Treaty Doc. 104-10), and it went into effect on January 1, 1997.
The 106th Congress extended permanent normal trade relations to Mongolia in 1999, and the
George W. Bush Administration concluded a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with
Mongolia in 2004. Two countries concluded a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in
peaceful uses of nuclear energy in 2010, and signed an Agreement on Transparency in Matters
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Related to International Trade and Investment in 2013. (See “U.S.-Mongolia Transparency
Agreement” above.)
U.S. Assistance to Mongolia
The United States provided $9.21 million in bilateral foreign assistance to Mongolia in FY2013,
and an estimated $8.49 million in FY2014. For FY2015, the State Department has requested $9.4
million in bilateral foreign assistance, a $910,000 increase from the FY2014 estimate.45 (See
Table 6 below.)
Nearly two-thirds of the State Department’s FY2015 request for Mongolia is in the form of
development assistance. Reflecting high rates of economic growth in Mongolia in recent years,
USAID is transitioning to a “legacy program” in Mongolia, or what the agency calls “an
economic partnership based on shared commercial interests and investment,” which will likely
result in lower budget requests in future years. USAID and the Mongolian government are still
negotiating the details of the legacy program, but the State Department says it will aim to “help
build the capacity of the government to manage revenues generated from the extractive industries
by strengthening the public administration system.”46
Defense cooperation has been a major component of the U.S.-Mongolian relationship.
Appropriations for Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Mongolia dropped from $4.5 million in
FY2010 to an estimated $2.4 million in FY2014. The Administration’s FY2015 budget request
further drops FMF for Mongolia to $2 million. FMF from the United States supports Mongolia’s
peacekeeping capacity, including communications equipment, “personal protective equipment,”
vehicles, and logistics equipment for Mongolian peacekeeping forces.
Table 6. U.S. Bilateral Foreign Assistance to Mongolia FY2009-FY2012
(In USD thousands)
FY2013 Actual
FY2014 Estimate
FY2015 Request
Development
5,159 5,000 6,000
Assistance
Foreign Military
3,048 2,400 2,000
Financing (FMF)
International
755 850
1,150
Military Education
and Training
(IMET)
Nonproliferation,
250 240 250
Antiterrorism,
Demining and
Related Programs
TOTAL
9,212 8,490 9,400
45 U.S. Department of State, FY 2015Congressional Budget Justification - Foreign Operations: Appendix 3: Regional
Perspectives, April 18, 2014, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/224070.pdf.
46 U.S. Department of State, FY 2015Congressional Budget Justification - Foreign Operations: Appendix 3: Regional
Perspectives, p. 277, April 18, 2014, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/224070.pdf.
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Source: U.S. Department of State, FY 2012 Congressional Budget Justification - Foreign Operations, April 11, 2011,
http://www.state.gov/f/releases/iab/fy2012cbj/pdf/index.htm; U.S. Department of State, FY 2011 Congressional
Budget Justification - Foreign Operations, March 2010, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/137937.pdf.
Notes: Country totals for foreign assistance under the continuing resolution, H.R. 1473, P.L. 112-10, signed into
law on April 15, 2011, have not yet been finalized.
The FY2015 budget request increases funding for International Military Education and Training
(IMET) for Mongolia. IMET funds support professional military education and technical training,
including English-language training for Mongolia’s forces, and has supported the enrollment of
Mongolian officers in such institutions as the U.S. National Defense University, the Army War
College and command and staff colleges of the U.S. services. The State Department notes that
IMET graduates led all ten Mongolian units that served in Iraq and have led all units deployed to
Afghanistan.
Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact
The United States’ $284.9 million Millennium Challenge Compact with Mongolia, signed in
2007, expired in September 2013. Included in the compact were five projects to build
infrastructure, strengthen vocational education for the unemployed and marginally employed,
address environmental challenges, strengthen property rights, and support public health. The
infrastructure project, the North-South Road Project, involved construction of a 110 mile-long
road that was to complete the last unpaved section of highway connecting Europe with East
Asia.47 Countries eligible for Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) support must perform
above the median in their peer group in “ruling justly, investing in people, and encouraging
economic freedom.”48
Mongolia sought but was not selected for a second MCC compact at the MCC’s board’s
December 2013 meeting. Because the World Bank now categorizes Mongolia as a “Low Middle
Income Country,” it faces stiffer competition for more limited MCC funds.
Select U.S. Government Programs in Mongolia
The Peace Corps currently has 111 volunteers assigned to Mongolia. They are training
Mongolian English teachers and teaching English, as well as working in the areas of community-
based health, community youth development, and community and economic development. More
than 1050 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Mongolia since 1991.49
The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) organizes
capacity building programs for Mongolian officials on trade issues and holds an annual United
States-Mongolia Business Forum in the United States.50
47 Ibid and Millennium Challenge Corporation, Mongolia: Roads, Energy, Vocational Training, Health and Land
Tenure,” http://www.mcc.gov/documents/reports/countrybrief-2013002144801-mongolia.pdf.
48 Millennium Challenge Corporation, Mongolia Compact, http://www.mcc.gov/pages/countries/program/mongolia-
compact.
49 For more information, see Peace Corps: Mongolia, http://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/learn/wherepc/asia/
mongolia/ and Peace Peace Corps Mongolia, http://mongolia.peacecorps.gov/projects.php.
50 International Trade Administration, “Under Secretaryof Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez
Arrives in Mongolia to Advance Commercial Relationship,” April 4, 2013, http://trade.gov/press/press-releases/2013/
(continued...)
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The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) has a resident
advisor stationed in Mongolia, assigned to Mongolia’s Ministry of Finance. He has been advising
the Ministry on “domestic and sovereign bond sales, cash forecasting and development of the
sovereign wealth fund.”51
Relations with Russia52
Mongolia was a satellite state of the Soviet Union from 1921 until 1990. The relationship entailed
one-party rule under the communist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, a foreign policy
dictated by the Soviet Union, state-owned industry, collectivized livestock herding, suppression
of Mongolia’s Tibetan Buddhist religion, and rounds of political purges. With military backing
from the Soviet Union, however, Mongolia was able to exist as a state in its own right, with its
own membership in the United Nations (gained in 1961) and in the Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance (Comecon), the economic organization for Soviet bloc countries (gained in 1962).
Mongolians had opportunities to pursue advanced studies in the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe. The Soviet Union partnered with Mongolia to build the country’s main rail line, a single
track running from the Russian border in the north to the Chinese border in the south. The Soviet
Union also partnered with Mongolia to develop the Erdenet copper and molybdenum mine, which
opened in 1978 and was until recently Mongolia’s top export earner.
With Mongolia’s 1990 democratic revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia cut off
aid, withdrew its last troops from Mongolia in 1992, and began to demand the repayment of aid
the Soviet Union had given to Mongolia between 1946 and 1990. The debt remained a thorn in
bilateral relations until December 2010, when the two countries declared a final settlement of the
dispute.
In recent years, Mongolia has sought to bolster ties with Russia, in part to balance China’s
influence. The two countries declared themselves “strategic partners” in 2005. Mongolia remains
dependent on Russia for energy products, particularly diesel, as well as for access to international
markets. Russia has been eager to cooperate with Mongolia in development of Mongolia’s
uranium resources. The U.S. government is more comfortable with Russian involvement in
Mongolian’s uranium sector than with the involvement of other players with less developed
protocols for management of uranium.
The Russian government continues to be a joint owner of Mongolia’s railway, through the state-
owned company JSC Russian Railways, and of the Erdenet copper mine. The two countries have
discussed further cooperation in railway infrastructure. Russian firms are also involved in the
bidding for the right to develop the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit, and have expressed interest in
(...continued)
under-secretary-of-commerce-for-international-trade-francisco-sanchez-arrives-in-mongolia-to-advance-commercial-
relationship-040413.asp.
51 Department of the Treasury, “Office of Technical Assistance Mission Statement,” http://www.treasuryota.us/;
Mongolia Projects and Investment Summit, “Daniel Patrick O’Connell, Resident Debt Advisor for Mongolia, U.S.
Department of the Treasury c/o Mongolia Ministry of Finance,” http://mongoliainvestmentsummit.com/hongkong/
daniel-patrick-oconnell-resident-debt-advisor-for-mongolia-u-s-department-of-the-treasury-co-mongolia-ministry-of-
finance/.
52 Drawn from Alan J.K. Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, 3rd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), pp.
616-625.
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other investment opportunities related to the Tavan Tolgoi project. Military ties are warming, too.
In November 2008, Mongolia and Russia held their first joint military exercises in Mongolia
since the departure of the last Russian troops from Mongolian soil in 1992.
Relations with China
Mongolia is committed to “balanced” relations with both Russia and China. China has become by
far Mongolia’s largest trading partner, as well as its largest source of foreign investment. The two
countries formally embraced a “good neighborly partnership of mutual trust” in 2003,53 and have
engaged in bilateral peacekeeping exercises. The “Peacekeeping Mission 2009,” held in China in
the summer of 2009, was the first joint peacekeeping exercise China had held with another
country, as well as the first joint military training between the two countries.54
Yet each side remains wary of the other. Mongolia worries about economic domination by China.
The 2012 Strategic Entities Foreign Investment Law of Mongolia (SEFIL) is reported to have
been enacted, at least in part, to block the acquisition of a Mongolian coal mining firm by a state-
owned Chinese aluminum firm, Chalco.55 The 2013Mongolian Law on Investment that replaced it
maintained restrictions on state-owned enterprises, a category that includes many of the biggest
Chinese firms seeking to invest in Mongolia. Being sparsely populated, Mongolia also worries
about being overrun by workers and immigrants from China, including from China’s Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, which has a larger ethnic Mongolian population than the country
of Mongolia itself.
Culturally, Mongolia has been rankled by China’s efforts to register elements of traditional
Mongolian culture as Chinese with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).56 For its part, China has lingering concerns about the potential for a
“pan-Mongol” movement, linking Mongolians on both sides of the Chinese-Mongolian border, to
undermine stability in Inner Mongolia. Beijing is also deeply uncomfortable with Mongolia’s
close ties to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom China blames for resistance to
Chinese control in Tibet and Tibetan areas of China.
Ties to Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama
Mongolia and Tibet have a long shared history. In 1578, a Mongolian ruler, Altyn Khan,
originated the title of the Dalai Lama, the title held by the spiritual leader of Tibet. Altyn Khan
conferred the title—“Dalai” means “Oceanic” in Mongolian—on a Tibetan Buddhist leader who
was the third incarnation of his Gelugpa sect’s reincarnation line. The man became the 3rd Dalai
Lama and his two predecessors retroactively became the 1st and 2nd Dalai Lamas. After the 3rd
Dalai Lama’s death, a great-grandson of Altyn Khan was identified as his reincarnation,
53 Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, “Mongolia,” http://www.fmprc.gov/
cn/chn/pds/gjhdq/gj/yz/1206_21/.
54 “China, Mongolia launch joint peacekeeping exercise,” Xinhua, June 29, 2009.
55 Clement Huaweilang Dai and David Tyler Gibson, “Minegolia Part I: China and Mongolia’s Mining Boom,” The
Wilson Center China Environment Forum, June 21, 2013.
56 Mongolia objected in 2010, for example, to UNESCO’s listing of Khoomii, the traditional Mongolian art of throat
singing, as an intangible cultural heritage of China. Jargal Byambasuren, “Mongolian throat singers defend tradition
against China,” Reuters, February 11, 2010.
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becoming the 4th Dalai Lama and the only Mongolian Dalai Lama in the history of the
institution.57
For centuries, Tibetan Buddhism, and specifically the Dalai Lama’s Gelugpa order of Tibetan
Buddhism, was the predominant religion in Mongolia. Close religious ties were a backdrop to
Mongolia and Tibet’s decision in 1913 to sign a treaty declaring themselves free from Manchu
Chinese rule and recognizing each other as independent states. Despite decades of religious
suppression during the Soviet era, Tibetan Buddhism has revived in Mongolia in the democratic
era. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 55.1 percent of Mongolia’s
population is Buddhist, making Mongolia one of seven nations in the world with Buddhist
majorities.58 Mongolian monks train in the monasteries of the exile Tibetan movement in India,
and the current incarnation of the Dalai Lama, the 14th, has made six ostensibly private visits to
Mongolia since the 1990 democratic revolution, in 1991, 1994, 1995, 2002, and 2006, and 2011,
despite objections from China. (The 14th Dalai Lama first visited Mongolia in 1979.) In
November 2002, in a powerful show of displeasure with Mongolia for hosting the Dalai Lama,
China closed its side of the Chinese-Mongolian rail border for 36 hours, highlighting Mongolia’s
geographic dependence on China’s goodwill.59 Mongolians are reportedly deeply concerned about
signals that China intends to control the reincarnation process for the current Dalai Lama, with
many Mongolians rejecting the idea that Beijing should be permitted to select their spiritual
leader.
Relations with Japan
Japan is one of Mongolia’s leading “third neighbors,” countries that do not share geographic
borders with Mongolia but to which Mongolia looks for diplomatic and other forms of support.
Mongolia and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1972, but the relationship remained
largely inactive until 1990. Shortly after the democratic revolution, the two countries exchanged
prime ministerial visits and Japan organized a series of conferences for aid donors to Mongolia.
Japan remains Mongolia’s largest donor, having provided Mongolia with cumulative bilateral
assistance of $2.13 billion (216,578 million yen) as of March 2013.60The Japanese government
has expressed frustration, however, that its companies have struggled to gain a foothold in
Mongolia.
Mongolia and Japan announced a “comprehensive partnership” in 1998, and committed in 2010
to building a “strategic partnership.” They entered into negotiations over a free trade zone, the
Japan-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement, in 2012. Negotiations remain ongoing.
Mongolia has pledged support for Japan’s campaign for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security
Council, a campaign that China opposes.61
57 Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama, University of California
Press, 1977, pp. 7-8.
58 The world’s other six majority Buddhist nations are Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Laos. The
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, The Global Religious Landscape: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the
World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010, December 2012, http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-
full.pdf.
59 Alan J.K. Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, 3rd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), pp. 686-689; 156.
60 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Mongolia: Basic Data, http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/mongolia/
data.html.
61 Alan J.K. Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, 3rd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), pp. 358-360.
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Relations with the Koreas
Mongolians have strong historical ties with the Korean peninsula, with many Koreans believing
their ancestors came from Mongolia. In 1948, when Mongolia was a satellite of the Soviet Union,
it was just the second country to recognize the new Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(North Korea), after the Soviet Union itself. In 1990, one of Mongolia’s first foreign policy acts
after the democratic revolution was to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea
(South Korea). Mongolia, like China and Russia, therefore has official relations with both Koreas.
Mongolia sees South Korea as a model for free-market economic development and a source of
technology and capital. It is also reportedly home to as many as one fifth of Mongolians living
abroad, with 32,206 Mongolians living long-term in South Korea as of 2008.62 South Korea has
become a major Mongolian trading partner, although two-way trade figures are dwarfed by those
for Mongolia’s trade with China and Russia. Mongolia deems South Korea to be one of its “third
neighbors,” countries that do not share borders with Mongolia but share close ties with it.
With encouragement from Western governments, starting in 1996, a succession of Mongolian
governments has reached out to North Korea, seeking to reduce the country’s isolation and
encourage it to engage with multilateral efforts to address security issues on the Korean
peninsula. Mongolia is also keenly interested in securing access to North Korea’s Rajin-Sonbong
port, which would reduce Mongolia’s reliance on the Chinese port of Tianjin, although
Mongolian goods would still need to travel through Chinese or Russian territory to reach Rajin-
Sonbong.
North Korea’s response to Mongolia’s overtures has been mixed. High-level contacts, which had
dropped off after Mongolia’s 1990 democratic revolution, resumed in 1998. A year later, however,
Mongolia expressed support for South Korea’s “Sunshine” policy, leading an angry North Korea
to shutter its embassy in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. When the embassy re-opened in
2004, a North Korean official suggested establishing joint farm operations in several Mongolian
provinces. Several thousand North Korean agricultural experts and workers are now estimated to
be employed on farms in Mongolia. Mongolian officials hope that North Korean workers exposed
to life in democratic Mongolia might help change mindsets back in North Korea after their return,
although some also worry that North Korean workers’ earnings may be lining the pockets of the
North Korean elite. Mongolia’s role as a transit stop for North Korean refugees arriving from
China has been a sensitive issue in Mongolian-North Korean relations. Mongolia’s former
ambassador to the United States has been quoted as saying that between 1999 and 2003, more
than 600 North Koreans who entered Mongolia from China were re-settled in South Korea.63
Mongolian President Elbegdorj visited Pyongyang in October 2013, becoming the first head of
state to visit since Kim Jong Un succeeded his father as North Korea’s top leader in December
2011. Elbegdorj gave a speech at Kim Il Sung University on his last day in the country entitled,
“It is the Human Desire to Live Free That Is an Eternal Power.” The speech including the
62 The one fifth statistic is from Migeddorj Batchimeg, “Mongolia’s DPRK Policy: Engaging North Korea,” Asian
Survey, vol. 46, no. 2 (March/April 2006), pp. 282. The number of Mongolians living in South Korea is from the
website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, http://www.mofat.go.kr/english/regions/
asia/20070802/1_292.jsp?board=board&boardid=&key=1.
63 Migeddorj Batchimeg, “Mongolia’s DPRK Policy: Engaging North Korea,” Asian Survey, vol. 46, no. 2
(March/April 2006), pp. 275-297.
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memorable line, “No tyranny last forever.” In a note on his website, Elbegdorj stated that the
North Korean side proposed the lecture topic, although the North Korean government advised
him to avoid use of the words “democracy” and “market economy.”64 Elbegdorj did not meet Kim
Jong Un on his trip; North Korea instead arranged for him to meet with its number two leader,
Kim Yong Nam. In March 2014, Mongolia hosted a reunion between the North Korea-based
daughter of a Japanese woman abducted by North Korea in 1977 and her Japanese grandparents.65
Nuclear-Weapons-Free Status
Mongolia unilaterally declared itself a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in 1992, soon after the
1990 democratic revolution, and has sought to establish an international legal basis for the status
ever since. The Law of Mongolia on Its Nuclear-Weapon-Free Status, which was adopted in 1992
and entered into force in 2000, makes it illegal to develop, manufacture, possess, control, station,
transport, test, or use nuclear weapons on Mongolian territory. It also makes it illegal to “dump or
dispose nuclear weapons grade radioactive material or nuclear waste” on Mongolian territory.66
Mongolia’s declaration was significant in that it signaled a rejection of nuclear weapons by a
country with perhaps the world’s second largest inferred reserves of uranium, an essential fuel for
the nuclear power industry that can also be used to make nuclear weapons.67 Mongolia’s
Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan,
explained in a 2010 interview that a major impetus for the declaration was Mongolia’s
experiences during the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s, when the threat of nuclear war between the
two giants loomed large and Mongolia, as a Soviet satellite state with Soviet troops and missiles
on its territory, found itself uncomfortably on the Russian front line.68
The Permanent Five (P-5) members of the U.N. Security Council – Britain, China, France,
Russia, and the United States – welcomed Mongolia’s NWFZ declaration, but until 2012 stopped
short of extending it formal recognition. In his 2010 interview, Ambassador Enkhsaikhan
attributed the P-5’s reluctance to a concern that recognizing Mongolia’s single-state NWFZ,
“would reduce or undermine the incentive for establishing traditional (i.e., group) NWFZs and set
a precedent for others to follow suit.”69 Mongolia had no choice but to declare a single-state
NWFZ, however, because its only contiguous neighbors are both nuclear powers. In September
2012, the P-5 countries signed parallel political declarations which, according to the State
Department, “affirmed their intent to respect Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-free status and not to
contribute to any act that would violate it.” The P-5 have also supported seven UN General
Assembly resolutions since 1992 inviting member states to support Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-
free status.70
64 The Office of the President of Mongolia, Lecture by President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj at Kim Il Sung University,
North Korea,” October 30, 2013, http://www.president.mn/eng/newsCenter/viewNews.php?newsId=1008.
65 Martin Fackler, “Years After Abduction by North Korea, a Reunion,” The New York Times, March 16, 2014.
66 “Law of Mongolia on its Nuclear-Weapon-Free Status,” declared September 25, 1992, Inventory of International
Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes, Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
67 Susan Wacaster, 2009 Minerals Yearbook: The Mineral Industry of Mongolia, United States Geological Survey,
Washington, D.C., February 2011, p. 18.3, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/2009/myb3-2009-mg.pdf.
68 Giovanni Verlini, “Keeping Nuclear Weapons Out: Ambassador Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan spoke with the
Bulletin’s Giovanni Verlini about Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-free zone,” IAEA Bulletin, vol. 51-2 (April 2010), p. 44-
47.
69 Ibid.
70 U.S. Department of State, “Five Permanent UN Representatives Support Mongolia’s Nuclear Weapon-Free Status,”
(continued...)
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Appendix A. Select Legislation on Mongolia
Table A-1. Select Legislation Related to Mongolia from the 102nd Congress to the
Present
(Listed in reverse chronological order, with most recent first)
Legislative
Bill Number
Sponsor
Date Agreed To
Title/Description
S.Res. 208
Kerry
June 15, 2011
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding
Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj’s visit
(112th Congress)
to Washington, D.C., and its support for the
growing partnership between the United States
and Mongolia.
S.Res. 192
Kerry
June 18, 2009
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding
supporting democracy and economic
(111th Congress)
development in Mongolia and expanding relations
between the United States and Mongolia.
P.L. 110-161
Lowey December
26,
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008
2007
(H.R. 2764)
Stated that in FY2008, funds available to the
Department of Defense could be expended for
crating, packing, handling, and transportation of
excess defense articles to Mongolia, among other
nations.
S.Res. 352
Murkowski
October 18, 2007
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the
20th anniversary of United States-Mongolia
(110th Congress)
relations.
H.Res. 828
Pitts
June 7, 2006
Commending the people of Mongolia, on the
800th anniversary of Mongolian statehood, for
(109th Congress)
building strong, democratic institutions, and
expressing the support of the House of
Representatives for efforts by the United States
to continue to strengthen its partnership with
that country.
P.L. 109-102
Kolbe November
14,
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
2005
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006
(H.R. 3057)
Stated that in FY2006, funds available to the
Department of Defense could be expended for
crating, packing, handling, and transportation of
excess defense articles to Mongolia, among other
nations.
P.L. 108-447
Kolbe
December 8, 2004
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005
(H.R. 4818)
Stated that in FY2005, funds available to the
Department of Defense could be expended for
crating, packing, handling, and transportation of
excess defense articles to Mongolia, among other
nations.
(...continued)
September 18, 2012, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/09/197873.htm.
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Legislative
Bill Number
Sponsor
Date Agreed To
Title/Description
P.L. 107-228
Hyde September
30,
Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year
2002
2003
(H.R. 1646)
Stated that in FY2003, funds available to the
Department of Defense could be expended for
crating, packing, handling, and transportation of
excess defense articles to Mongolia, among other
nations. Also stated that it was the sense of the
Congress that the authority provided “should be
utilized only for those countries demonstrating a
genuine commitment to democracy and human
rights.”
P.L. 107-115
Kolbe
January 10, 2002
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2002
(H.R. 2506)
Stated that in FY2002 and 2003, funds available to
the Department of Defense could be expended
for crating, packing, handling, and transportation
of excess defense articles to Mongolia, among
other nations.
P.L. 106-429
Cal ahan
November 6, 2000 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2001
(H.R. 4811)
Made available to Mongolia not less than $12
mil ion in Economic Support Fund appropriations.
P.L. 106-280
Gilman
October 6, 2000
Security Assistance Act of 2000
(H.R. 4919)
Stated that funds available to the Department of
Defense could be expended for crating, packing,
handling, and transportation of excess defense
articles to Mongolia.
P.L. 106-113
Istook November
29,
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2000
1999
(H.R. 3194)
Made available to Mongolia not less than $6
million in bilateral economic assistance.
P.L. 106-36
Archer
June 25, 1999
Miscel aneous Trade and Technical Corrections
Act of 1999
(H.R. 435)
Extended permanent normal trade relations
treatment to the products of Mongolia.
P.L. 105-277
Wolf
October 21, 1998
Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency
Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999
(H.R. 4328)
Stated that bilateral economic assistance funds
should be made available for Mongolia at a level at
least equivalent to the level provided in FY1998.
P.L. 105-118
Cal ahan November
26,
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
1997
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1998
(H.R. 2159)
Made bilateral economic assistance funds available
to Mongolia.
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Mongolia: Issues for Congress
Legislative
Bill Number
Sponsor
Date Agreed To
Title/Description
P.L. 104-208
Young September
30,
Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 1997.
1996
(H.R. 3610)
Made $10 million in bilateral economic assistance
available only for assistance to Mongolia, of which
not less than $6 million was to be available only
for the Mongolian energy sector.
S.Res. 276
Robb
September 6, 1996 Congratulating the people of Mongolia on
embracing democracy in Mongolia through their
(104th Congress)
participation in the parliamentary elections held
on June 30, 1996.
P.L. 104-107
Cal ahan
February 12, 1996
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1996
(H.R. 1868)
Made available to Mongolia funds appropriated
for assistance for the new independent states of
the former Soviet Union.
H.Res. 158
Bereuter September
18, Congratulating the people of Mongolia on the 5th
1995
anniversary of the first democratic multiparty
(104th Congress)
elections held in Mongolia on July 29, 1990.
P.L. 103-306
Obey
August 23, 1994
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1995
H.R. 4426
Made available to Mongolia funds appropriated
for assistance for the new independent states of
the former Soviet Union.
P.L. 102-157
Gephardt November
13, Approving the extension of nondiscriminatory
1991
treatment with respect to the products of the
(H.J.Res. 281)
Mongolian People’s Republic.
S.Con.Res. 21
Cranston
October 17, 1991
A concurrent resolution commending the people
of Mongolia on their first multi-party elections.
(102nd Congress)
Source: Legislative Information System of the U.S. Congress.
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Appendix B. Results of Mongolian Elections
1992-Present
Table B-1. Results of Direct Presidential Elections
Percentage of Vote
Date Winning
Candidate Party
Won
June 6, 1993
Punsalmaagi n Ochirbat
Mongolian National
57.8
Democratic Party and
Mongolian Social
Democratic Party
May 18, 1997
Natsagiin Bagabandi
Mongolian People’s
60.8
Revolutionary Party
May 20, 2001
Natsagiin Bagabandi
Mongolian People’s
57.95
Revolutionary Party
May 22, 2005
Nambaryn Enkhbayar
Mongolian People’s
53
Revolutionary Party
May 24, 2009
Tsakhiagi n Elbegdorj
Democratic Party
51.21
June 26, 2013
Tsakhiagi n Elbegdorj
Democratic Party
50.23
Source: For elections from 1993 to 2009, Alan J.K. Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, 3rd ed. (The
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), pp. 585-586. For 2013 election, ElectionGuide: Democracy Assistance & Election
News, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/144/.
Notes: In September 1990, prior to passage of the 1992 democratic constitution, Mongolia’s then parliament
elected Ochirbat president for the first time as the candidate of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party
(MPRP). The MPRP declined to select him as its candidate for the 1993 direct presidential election, so Ochirbat
ran instead as the candidate of the Mongolian National Democratic Party and the Mongolian Social Democratic
Party. He defeated the MPRP’s candidate, 57.8% to 38.7%. (See Alan J.K. Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia,
3rd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), pp. 546-547.
Table B-2. Results of Direct Parliamentary Elections 1992-Present
The State Great Hural has 76 Seats. Majority Party or Coalition is in Bold Type.
Date
Breakdown of Seats
Prime Ministers
June 28, 1992
Mongolian People’s
Puntsagi n Jasrai (7/20/1992-
Revolutionary Party (MPRP): 70
7/19/1996)
seats
Democratic Union Coalition (the
Mongolian Democratic Party,
Mongolian National Progressive Party,
and the Mongolian United Party): 4
seats
Mongolian Social Democratic Party
(MSDP): 1 seat
Independents: 3 seats
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Date
Breakdown of Seats
Prime Ministers
June 30, 1996
“Democratic Union” Coalition
Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan
(Mongolian National Democratic
(7/19/1996-4/23/1998)
Party, Mongolian Social Democratic
Party, Mongolian Worshipers
Tsakhiagi n Elbegdorj (4/23/1998-
Democratic Party, and the Green
12/9/1998)
Party): 50 seats
Janlavyn Narantstasralt (12/9/1998-
MPRP: 25 seats
7/22/1999)
Mongolian Traditional United Party: 1
Rinchinnyamyn Amarjargal
seat
(7/30/1999-7/26/2000)
July 2, 2000
MPRP: 72 seats
Nambaryn Enkhbayar (7/26/2000-
8/20/2004)
National Democratic Party (MNDP): 1
seat
Civil Courage Party: 1 seat
Mongolian New Social Democratic
Party: 1 seat
Independent: 1 seat
June 27, 2004
MPRP: 37 seats
Tsakhiagi n Elbegdorj (8/20/2004-
1/25/2006)
Motherland-Democracy Coalition
(Democratic Party, Motherland Party,
Miyeegombyn Ekhbold (1/25/2006-
National New Party, Civil Will Party):
11/22/2007)
35 seats
Sanjaagi n Bayar (11/22/2007-
Republican Party (MRP): 1 seat
9/11/2008)
Independents: 3 seats
June 29, 2008
MPRP: 45 seats
Sanjaagin Bayar (9/11/2008-
10/29/2009)
Democratic Party: 28 seats
Sukhbaatar Batbold (10/29/2009 to
Civil Wil Party (CWP): 1 seat
8/9/2012)
Green Party: 1 seat
Independent:1 seat
June 28, 2012
Democratic Party: 33 seats
Norovyn Altankhuyag (8/9/2012 to
present)
Mongolian People’s Party: 25 seats
Justice Coalition (Mongolian
People’s Revolutionary Party and
Mongolian National Democratic
Party): 11 seats
Civil Will – Green Party: 2 seats
Independents: 3 seats
Source: Breakdown of seats 1992-2008 from Inter-Parliamentary Union, http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/
2219_arc.htm; breakdown of seats in 2012 from the website of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia,
http://www.parliament.mn/en/state-great-hural/categories/2604/pages/4991; prime ministers from Alan J.K.
Sanders, Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, 3rd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), pp. 587-588.
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Author Contact Information
Susan V. Lawrence
Specialist in Asian Affairs
slawrence@crs.loc.gov, 7-2577
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