Successes in Mongolia’s air transport in 2023
Mongolia signed a number of international air transport agreements in October 2023. So, on October 17 of this year, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Mongolia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and an air service agreement with Vietnam, both of which stated that the parties were willing to give up their airspace to allow free passage for their aircraft. A similar agreement was signed the day before with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s aviation authorities. A week earlier, namely on October 10, 2023…
Mongolia’s space initiatives - new projects in a new sector
In 1981 Mongolia’s “space pioneer,” the astronaut Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, made a flight on the Salyut 39 mission. He later became the head of the Russian-Mongolian Friendship Association A great deal has changed in Mongolia since then, not least the political system and the country’s economic and social development priorities. For a long time Mongolia could not afford to dream about having a space program, first because of its struggles to alleviate the acute poverty and other woes caused by “economic liberalization,” and…
The One Belt, One Road, Putin, and Khürelsükh: the main points and relevance of the conversation
On October 17, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Mongolian counterpart Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 3rd Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. This meeting was attended by ministers from both nations, transportation ministers, the Vice-Premier of the Russian Federation, the head of the Russian Economic Development Ministry, and the CEOs of three significant Russian corporations: Russian Railways…
The Mongolian president in France - empty ceremony or a future uranium deal?
On October 10 Mongolia’s president, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, landed in Paris. Upon arrival, as he stepped onto the boarding ramp he was formally welcomed by the French Ambassador to Mongolia, the Mongolian Ambassador to France and the French Minister of Energy. On October 11, the Mongolian president had a meeting with the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. Among the matters they touched on during their meeting were a number of the most pressing issues affecting Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital…
Transport in Mongolia: Mongolian Road Transport Revolution?
If railway transport in Mongolia made a qualitative breakthrough and had many ambitious endeavours in 2023, the country’s road transport had a symbolic moment that took place in 2022. We are talking about achieving an epoch-making transport and communication task, namely the final connection by asphalt roads the administrative centres of all parts of the country, 21 aimags with the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. However, the preliminary results for 2023 in the field of road transport are slightly brightened up by such a significant event for Mongolia. 2023 brought about a breakthrough in the field of transit…
Transport in Mongolia: Three Transit Railway Corridors
The first article in the series on the development of transport infrastructure in Mongolia described Mongolia’s projects in the field of railway transport implemented in 2022-2023. This second article provides a brief overview of the projects of Mongolian colleagues in the same field, which are currently being developed and have not yet reached the construction stage. The Mongolian long-term rail construction program up to the year 2030 is included in the country’s overall development programme “Long-Term Vision – 2030”, which, in turn, is a more detailed and structured part of the “Long-Term Vision – 2050” program. As part of the 2030 program (the projects described in the previous…
Mongolia's recent successes in railway construction
The onset of the first autumn cold weather is a sign that we can begin to summarise the first results of the various undertakings of 2023. This article is a brief overview of the Mongolian government’s preliminary results in the field of railway construction. It is worth noting that Mongolia has made significant progress in this sector this year. According to the medium-term state development programmes, 1,820 kilometres of railways are planned to be built in the country between 2020 and 2024. Already in 2022 and less than ten months from 2023…
Speaker of the Russian State Duma in Mongolia - exchange of visits and new bilateral format
On September 25, 2023, the visit of Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to Mongolia, was concluded. In its content, Mr. Volodin’s visit to Mongolia was similar to the recent visit of the Speaker of the Mongolian Parliament, Gombojav Zandanshatar, to Russia, and marked the logical development and completion of those endeavors that had been outlined by the two Speakers back in Moscow. In addition to meeting with his Mongolian counterpart…
Mongolia and Central Asia: Growing Interest and What’s Behind It
From the very beginning of its democracy, Mongolia has sought to define itself as an East Asian state, sometimes even fitting into the Asia-Pacific region (despite being a landlocked state). Recently, however, despite the continuation of the same trend in the country’s “geographical self-image,” Mongolia has begun to actively develop relations with Central Asian states as well. Although diplomatic relations between most Central Asian countries and Mongolia were established as early as 1992, they have not been very active. The only exceptions are Mongolia’s relations with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan…
What was the obvious and not-so-obvious significance of the Pope’s visit to Mongolia?
The Pope’s journey to Mongolia concluded on September 4. This was a spiritual as well as a state visit, and the Pope was not only visiting Mongolia as the head of the Catholic Church. In addition to preaching, inaugurating a Charity House, and meeting with members of the Catholic community, Francis met with Mongolian dignitaries, including the President of Mongolia, Prime Minister, and Speaker of Parliament. Despite a pretty unusual agenda and expectations of equally unusual remarks and outcomes from this journey…
Mongolia and the UN: a broader understanding of the “international community”
Mongolia has virtually always had to operate far from major global political and civilizational centers, both geographically and culturally. Looking for economic partners and political allies that are physically remote from Mongolia has historically been a hugely popular concept in the nation. The Mongol rulers of the “imperial period” dispatched ambassadors to distant states such as Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Pope of Rome. The early twentieth-century theocratic Mongolia likewise began…
Gender equality: the faux pas of Americanizing Mongolia
When the word “Mongolia” appears in media reports from the past two or three weeks, the reader is typically directed to numerous headlines about the recent visit of Mongolia’s Prime Minister, Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to the United States of America. What’s even more intriguing and potentially productive is that the Mongolia-US talks have recently taken place within Mongolia. For instance, the Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue was held in Ulaanbaatar in the first half of June this year. The Ban Ki-moon Foundation and Shorenstein APARC collaborated to organize the event. Its stated goal is to coordinate SDG action through establishing new research…