For the first time since 2018, on Wednesday the prime minister of Mongolia met with top American officials in Washington, on a quest for direct flights, mining investment and easier trade.
Mongolia is the world’s most sparsely populated country, with a population of only 3.4 million in the world’s 18th-largest country. It is located entirely between Russia and China.
Its competitive two-party politics and peaceful exchanges of power led Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) to call it “a stable democracy in a sea of authoritarianism.”
Politico quoted an anonymous White House official who told them prior to the meeting that Vice President Kamala Harris and Mongolia’s Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene were expected to talk about “our economic and commercial relationship … and a range of regional and global issues, including China and Russia” at the meeting.
Given its location, Mongolia must balance the need for cordial relations with its powerful neighbors and the West. Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene met with Xi Jinping in June, and Putin in September 2022, leading the United States to want to know what has been said in those discussions and make their own offers.
Mongolia’s rich mineral reserves were a focus of the meeting. Mongolian coal helped fuel Chinese industrialization and copper and gold are massive export industries, but the country also has massive reserves of rare earth metals and other minerals vital for the transition to sustainable energy. Politico reported in June about the Biden administration’s attempts to make deals to bring more of those resources to the United States than Russia and especially China.
In what might become a groundbreaking improvement for Mongolian Americans, the two leaders discussed supporting new direct flights between Chinggis Khaan International Airport, named after the great Mongol conqueror, and the United States. The journey currently takes at least two days.
Yesterday, the first steps were announced by the White House, which described the new Open Skies Agreement between the US and Mongolia as “expanding our strong economic and commercial partnership, promoting people-to-people ties, and creating new opportunities for trade and tourism.”
Further, responding to a request at the meeting, the Federal Aviation Administration will be providing technical assistance to the Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia to improve safety.
“One of the ways for Mongolia to get out of the realities of being a landlocked country is to increase their air connections — if [PM Oyun-Erdene] came home with a commitment to that, or even have a commitment to towards a path towards that, that’s something that would be big for them,” said Piper Campbell before the meeting, the former US ambassador to the country. Mongolia seems to have gotten what it wanted.
In February, it was revealed that Mongolia’s state carrier hopes to fly nonstop from San Francisco to Ulaanbaatar using a pair of Boeing 787s, and is seeking the necessary FAA licenses to do so.
Mongolia follows what is called the “Third Neighbor Policy” in regards to foreign relations, seeking closer ties to powers other than China and Russia. The United States is trying to be that figurative ‘third neighbor’ for Mongolia, something only possible with growing connectivity and ties between the two countries. The Mongolian American community is one of the key bonds in the relationship.
According to former U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia Michael S. Klecheski in a conversation with the UB Post, the “many Mongolian Americans who live, study, work and thrive in the United States […] contribute greatly to our country’s strength and dynamism.”
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