Mongolia confirmed 161 new cases of COVID-19, including 114 cases in Ulaanbaatar and 47 cases in the regions, the country's Ministry of Health reported on Mar 9.

The total number of cases increased to 467 thousand 463.

306 hospitalized patients are in mild condition, 853 are in moderate condition, 130 are in serious condition and 19 are in very serious condition.

No deaths from COVID-19 were recorded per day, the death toll remains at 2,104.

The Ministry of Road and Transport Development reported that the Russian airline, ‘Aeroflot’, has halted its flights en route Moscow - Ulaanbaatar for an indefinite period.

As Saber Corp. of the U.S. terminated its distribution agreement with Aeroflot, the Russian flag carrier is stopping all of its international flights for an indefinite period from March 9.

Aero Mongolia airline has also announced that its flights to Irkutsk, Russia will be suspended until further notice as the UK-based company is involved in the aircraft’s reinsurance.

Officials of the satellite city and special economic zone development department of the capital city held a meeting with representatives of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and a South Korean construction company.

At the meeting, the sides exchanged views the objectives for satellite cities and special economic zones in the Ulaanbaatar Mayor’s action program for 2020-2024, ways to connect logistics centers, and extension of the city’s infrastructure. The Korean side undertook to provide support in developing satellite cities and special economic zones through technical assistance projects of the South Korean government.

KOTRA implements the Knowledge Sharing Program of the government of the Republic of Korea and is currently carrying out a feasibility study into building a logistics center in Altanbulag free zone at the request of the Ministry of Road and Transport Development of Mongolia.

During a wild week for markets following the imposition of wide-ranging sanctions on Russia, a number of industrial metals hit all-time highs.

Aluminium scaled $4,000 per tonne for the first time ever and copper exceeded $5 a pound in whipsaw trading on Monday after hitting a record closing high on Friday of $4.94 a pound ($11,885 per tonne).

Nickel prices rocketed more than 20% overnight to surpass $38,000 for the first time since June 2007 and zinc also set a 15 year high at $4,173 a tonne. While lead is clearly the laggard, tin continues to hit records with regularity on its way to $50,000 per tonne.

Australian export metallurgical coal reached $560 a tonne, also an all-time high, as did thermal coal from Newcastle when it topped $400 per tonne. Benchmark iron ore prices advanced 20% over the last week to hit $162 a tonne.

Mongolia reports 189 new cases of COVID-19, the country's Ministry of Health reports on Tuesday.

91of them were recorded in Ulaanbaatar, 98 in the regions of the country.

No new imported cases of COVID-19 have been reported.

The total number of cases has increased to 467,302.

No new deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in the country per day. The death toll remains 2,104.

The Russian government has approved a list of unfriendly countries and territories that commit unfriendly actions against Russia.

This list includes Australia, UK, EU countries, Iceland, Canada, Lichtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, San Marino, Singapore, United States, Taiwan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Japan.

The government noted that according to this decree, Russian citizens and companies, the state itself, its regions and municipalities that have foreign exchange obligations to foreign creditors from the list of unfriendly countries will be able to pay them in rubles. The new temporary procedure applies to payments exceeding 10 mln rubles per month (or a similar amount in foreign currency).

The Russian invasion of Ukraine war has caused thousands of casualties, displaced 1 million refugees, and sent foreign governments scrambling to get their citizens to safety using diplomatic and emergency evacuation measures. Mongolia, too, has been carefully coordinating with its Eastern European partners, including Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and Czechia, to evacuate Mongolian citizens.

In late February, before the Russian troop movements into Ukraine, the Embassy of Mongolia in Warsaw began recommending that its citizens leave Ukraine as tensions escalated and diplomatic efforts were derailed. On February 28, the Foreign Ministry of Mongolia stated that the Mongolian embassies in Poland, Hungary, and Czechia were responsible for contacting Mongolian citizens residing in Ukraine and mobilizing an evacuation plan and executing those plans using government funds.

So far, 23 Mongolian citizens have been evacuated from Kharkiv, using the Kharkiv-Lviv train to reach the Poland-Ukraine border – a journey of approximately 1,100 km. Another 11 citizens, mostly students from Odessa, Kyiv, and Kirovohrad, travelled by car to meet Mongolian consulate workers at Poland-Ukraine border crossing points. According to a source from the foreign ministry, all those students were on scholarships, and may see their educations permanently disrupted by the war.

As of March 2, thanks to the Mongolian foreign ministry and collaboration of Eastern European partners, Mongolia had successfully evacuated 58 of its citizens from Ukraine.

While some Mongolia observers are conflicted about how Mongolia should respond to the current Russia-Ukraine war, others familiar with Mongolian foreign policy understand and predicted Mongolia’s response.

On March 2, the United Nations General Assembly convened an emergency session to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mongolia abstained along with 34 other nations, including China and India. No doubt, Mongolia’s abstention raised some eyebrows in diplomatic circles. However, from both a security and a foreign policy standpoint, given Mongolia’s geopolitical challenge, its relations with its neighbors – Russia and China – cannot be hindered by external instabilities. At the same time, Mongolia’s abstention does not mean it will miraculously avoid the economic damages that are already following the war and widespread sanctions on Russia.

Moreover, in response to the current events, Mongolian people have begun to speak out in support of peaceful dialogues between Russia and Ukraine.

On March 3, eight peace advocates gathered in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar. One of the advocates, B. Bilguun, wearing a white T-shirt that said #nowar, told a journalist “In our generation—in 2022—we should not be worried about tanks destroying cities and bullets going through windows. The current Russia-Ukrainian crisis is really about global oligarchs fighting for resources, where superpowers bully smaller players. I am here because I would like to show the world that Mongolia stands with peace.”

Peace activists gathered again in Sukhbaatar Square on March 5 to call for an end to the war. They were joined this time by former President Elbegdorj Tsakhia.

Just one month before Russian troops entered Ukraine, on January 21, Mongolia and Ukraine celebrated 30 years of diplomatic relations in the Ukraine parliament in Kyiv. The event celebrated the countries’ history, shared values, and political, economic, and business cooperation. The ceremony was attended by the Mongolian ambassador to Ukraine, Dorj Barkhas; the chairman of the Mongolia-Ukraine Friendship Committee, I. Krishoviv; and Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmytro Senik, as well as geologists, businesspeople, and research representatives.

Earlier, in October 2021, 40 business entities from Mongolia and Ukraine organized an online summit to improve the two countries’ business environment. Given the war’s current escalation, these opportunities will inevitably be delayed.

Mongolians, for generations, have traveled to work and study in both Russia and Ukraine. Mongolian leaders have traveled to Kyiv and Crimea, inspired by its maritime capabilities, only to return to a landlocked economy. But Mongolian leaders also understand that in order for Mongolia to develop, its foreign policy must be flexible yet shrewd, capable of prioritizing national interest. Governments, parties, and superpower ambitions change over time, but the one constant in a bilateral relationship is the people-to-people ties. These values should be protected at all times.

The elephant in the room is how Mongolia will handle the newly emerging geopolitical changes and economic pressures, all while maintaining stable bilateral and multilateral relations with both Russia and China, and with the rest of the world.

GUEST AUTHOR

Bolor Lkhaajav

Bolor Lkhaajav is a researcher specializing in Mongolia, China, Russia, Japan, East Asia, and the Americas. She holds an M.A. in Asia-Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco.

Mongolian surgeons operated on two children from Kyrgyzstan for free. Press center of the Ministry of Health reported.

According to it, Dastan and Bilal’s heart surgeries were performed at a clinic in Ulaanbaatar. All expenses were covered by the Mongolian side. The boys returned home the day before.

«We arrived in Mongolia on February 20, and already on February 21 doctors operated Bilal, on February 22 — my son Dastan. A week later they were discharged from the hospital, but the children continued to be observed by doctors. The children are doing very well now. We were paid for the flight, food, accommodation and the operation itself, everything was absolutely free. I am very grateful to the Mongolian doctors,» mother of one of the boys, Gulzat Toktomusheva, told.

The children were selected for the operation in Mongolia by the specialists of the Research Institute of Heart Surgery and Organ Transplantation of Kyrgyzstan. Both patients had one of the most common congenital heart defects — an atrial septal defect.

«The operations were successful. Special long-term rehabilitation is not needed for children with such a heart disease. They will be completely healthy in 2-3 months. Mongolian doctors are planning to perform several more such operations. The Research Institute of Heart Surgery and Organ Transplantation is working on further cooperation,» the Minister of Health Alymkadyr Beishenaliev, who met the boys at the Bishkek airport, said.

The Ministry of Health added that Mongolian doctors from the National Center for Organ Transplantation and Cardiovascular Surgery were in Kyrgyzstan from February 2 to February 7. As part of their cooperation, they conducted examinations and consultations for children from low-income families. A joint operation of two children was also performed with the surgeons of the Research Institute of Heart Surgery and Organ Transplantation in Bishkek.

On March 4, a project on ‘Integrated production system for sustainable cashmere – II’ implemented by AVSF Mongolia NGO held its next round Steering Committee meeting to present the achievements of the action and to introduce plans to upgrade the initiative nationally.

As of 2022, the project is working with seven cooperatives in Bayankhongor aimag to support and engage herders to adopt sustainable practices and adopt the Sustainable cashmere certification. According to the project team, as a result of project interventions 4500 are composed into Pasture Users’ Groups and as of 2022, 440 households have obtained SC Certification. The certified households, with the support from the Sustainable Cashmere Union, supply over 50 tons of raw sustainable cashmere to around 10 international buyers at a value-added price within the last six years. Moreover, as a result of project support within the last six years the annual turnover of beneficiary cooperatives increased by five times from MNT42 million.

SC Certification is a proof document that certifies that herders and their organizations prepare and supply cashmere in an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable way. This includes sustainable management of pastoral resources, improved herding practices, democratic and transparent governance of their organizations, or strengthened capacities to manage cashmere quality and support traceability claims.

The project is synergetic with other AVSF initiatives aiming at empowering women as actor of change for rural economic development, or at supporting the development of sustainable textile sector in Mongolia with all value chain stakeholders as well as relevant authorities and business intermediaries. It is a model that was initiated by AVSF Mongolia in 2013 to help promoting an integrated approach encompassing all steps of sustainable cashmere value chain development, from production to consumption, considered as necessary to induce systemic change.

In the coming years, the team is planning to expand its intervention to promote sustainable cashmere in several soums of Arkhangai and Khentii aimags and to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Sustainable Cashmere Union and its member cooperatives.

Source: AVSF Mongolia