Dog in Inner Mongolia waits more than 80 days for its dead owner to return www.straitstimes.com

Dogs are indeed man's best friends. For more than 80 days, a loyal canine has been waiting at the railing in the middle of a road in Hohhot, a city in Inner Mongolia, for its female owner.

Meeting with Neven Mimica, European Commisioner for International Cooperation and Development www.president.mn

President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga received Neven Mimica, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, today in the State Palace.

Oil hit with longest losing streak on record www.cnn.com

New York (CNN Business)Not even Saudi Arabia could prevent crude oil from suffering the longest losing streak on record.

Rio Tinto sells Kitimat wharf to LNG Canada for $576 million www.mining.com

Rio Tinto completed the lease and sale of a wharf and land in Kitimat to LNG Canada for a consideration of $576 million (about CAD$760 million). LNG has also agreed to build a replacement wharf for Rio’s export shipments of aluminum from the B.C. Works smelter.

MPP board approves to oust Mayor of UB Batbold Sundui www.zgm.mn

Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) board held a meeting yesterday and decided to oust Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city and Governor of Capital City Batbold Sundui and approved the appointment of MP Ulaan Chultem as the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry. At the forum, Prime Minister announced that he will dismiss several key officials related to alleged MNT 60 billion sell-off of public service positions. Several policy makers, including Parliament Speaker Enkhbold Miyegombo, Mayor Batbold Sundui and Head of MPP caucus Khayankhyarvaa Damdin were reportedly related to the case. The case began during the 2016 Parliamentary elections when a voice recording of three high-profile officials of the MPP went viral on social media. In the recordings, more than 8,000 jobs in Mongolia’s government and stateowned enterprises were being offered by the MPP if they won the elections, in return for the money required for their campaign.

Mongolia’s rating upgraded to ‘B’ with stable outlook www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ S&Ps Global Ratings upgraded Mongolia’s rating to ‘B stable’ from ‘B-‘ on November 9.

Why Russia and Mongolia want summits with the North Korean leader www.nknews.org

As the year comes to a close it’s clear that 2018 was a year of paradigm shifts in Korea and beyond. Among its most notable aspects, this was the year Kim Jong Un, who in his role as North Korea’s Supreme Leader has been by and large been a homebody, made several trips abroad.

Kim’s demonstrable willingness to travel outside the confines of the DPRK has subsequently spawned invitations from other states traditionally friendly to the DPRK.

This past October, Mongolia’s President Khaltmaagiin Battulga invited Kim Jong Un to visit Ulaanbaatar. Russia, for its part, has been in a state of hopeful anticipation for a visit from Kim Jong Un for the better part of this year.

South Korean ambassador to Russia, Woo Yoon-keun, recently asserted that Kim Jong Un was likely to visit Russia by the end of November this year. Nevertheless, within days the Kremlin stated that Kim’s prospective visit to Russia would not likely happen until next year.

Hopes throughout the second half of 2018 that Kim Jong Un will pay a visit to various countries naturally raises the question of why there is a sudden interest in playing host to the North Korean leader.

They have all assessed that hosting Kim Jong Un won’t send the wrong message to South Korea

When looking at the relationships China (where Kim visited three times in quick succession), Mongolia, and Russia have with the DPRK, one common thread is the idea of diplomatic equidistance.

All three countries, which in even in relatively recent history maintained exclusive ties with North Korea, have opted to attempt a delicate balance between their ties with Pyongyang and their relations with Seoul.

It seems, however that they have all assessed that hosting Kim Jong Un won’t send the wrong message to South Korea. This is especially important for Mongolia and Russia, which the South Korean government has included in its “New Northern” economic initiative.

Separately analyzing the cases of Kim’s repeated visits to China, as well as Vladimir Putin and President Battulga’s invitations to the DPRK’s leader yields interesting insights into how these countries assess the importance of ties with the DPRK.

If we can gather anything from Kim’s three visits to the PRC, it is that despite thorns in the relationship, ties between Beijing and Pyongyang remain strong. During the last two months of his life, Kim Jong Il, as if he knew that his time was near, scurried to set the stage for relations between Beijing and Pyongyang under his soon-to-be successor.

Yet in spite of the “Dear Leader’s” final efforts, events such as the execution of Jang Song Thaek and four nuclear tests have tested the vitality of China-DPRK ties. Nevertheless, China has not been willing to sacrifice its ally for one main reason.

For China, interests in the DPRK can largely be summed up with the word stability. North Korea factors into China’s desire for stability not only in terms of stemming conflict on China’s periphery, but also in maintaining strategic stability with the United States.

There are, in a manner of speaking, prestige points to be had for hosting the North Korean leader

From China’s vantage point, therefore, even as Beijing has grown demonstrably irritated with North Korea’s behavior over the past several years, China continues to see importance in maintaining its ties with Pyongyang.

THE PRESTIGE

The incentive for countries like Mongolia and Russia to invite North Korea’s Supreme Leader for a state visit, however are rather different. Indeed, whereas Moscow and Ulaanbaatar have publicly offered their official hospitality to Kim, the North Korean leader’s meetings with Xi Jinping were not made public until after the fact. Beijing had nothing to gain from advertising beforehand the fact that it had allowed Kim to sojourn in China.

For countries like Mongolia and Russia, however there are, in a manner of speaking, prestige points to be had for hosting the North Korean leader.

Mongolia-North Korea relations have a long, though not always friendly, history.

Ties between Pyongyang and Ulaanbaatar have remained stable in recent years, despite what could be considered to be then-President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj’s veiled swipe at North Korea’s political system while speaking at Kim Il Sung University in 2015.

Mongolia is, from a regional standpoint, geographically distant enough from the Korean peninsula so that it is not immediately affected by Korean security crisis. For Ulanbataar, however, having a voice in the Korean security crisis is crucial for one of the key aspects of contemporary Mongolian foreign policy.

A small country sandwiched between two giants, Mongolia relies on its status as a harmless, non-aligned state to play a diplomatic role in regional issues larger than Mongolia’s actual power and prestige.

A positive Mongolian role in the Korean security crisis, therefore would provide perhaps the best opportunity for Ulanbataar to prove its diplomatic mettle in small country diplomacy.

GO THEIR OWN WAY

For Russia, the key goal is restoring Russian leverage on the Korean peninsula. This must surely have been at the forefront of the Kremlin’s thinking when Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov extended an invitation from Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong Un in May of this year.

Since that time, speculation has included the idea that Vladivostok could serve as a venue for the Trump-Kim summit, as well as the potential that Kim could visit the Eastern Economic Forum.

Last year, noting the downturn in Sino-North Korean ties and the corresponding uptick in Moscow-Pyongyang relations, analysts raised the possibility that the Kremlin may be stepping in to replace China as the DPRK’s main international partner. Russian efforts at expanding influence, while consistent and diligent, have yet to yield any major breakthroughs.

Russia’s aim is to increase its own influence

The Kremlin, for its part, shares in Beijing’s concerns over potential instability. Yet the simple fact is that instability in North Korea will affect China much more severely than it will Russia.

Russia’s aim is to increase its own influence. Indeed, as far back as the 1990’s, Russian policymakers came to regret letting Moscow’s post-Cold War leverage with Pyongyang wane.

Thus for Russia, influence factors in more than stability. For the Kremlin to secure a state visit from Kim would signal to the world that Russia is, at the very least an independent actor in the Korean peninsula, rather than merely an associate of China.

Whether or not the events of this year mean that Kim will travel abroad more regularly is anybody’s guess. Nevertheless, where Kim has gone, and where his presence has been welcomed, offers hints at the state of how other states view their relations with the DPRK.

Whatever way Kim reacts to the invitations he has received throughout the coming year will likely offer some insights into how Kim Jong Un assesses the DPRK’s relations with his potential hosts.

By:Anthony V. Rinna
Edited by Oliver Hotham

Mongolian ambassador discusses foreign relations, democracy www.gwhatchet.com

The ambassador of Mongolia to the United States spoke Monday at the Elliott School of International Affairs about Mongolia’s global presence and its position between two superpowers.

Otgonbayar Yondon, who was nominated as Mongolia’s ambassador to the United States in May 2017, discussed the 2,000-year history of the central Asian country’s domestic politics and international relations with Russia and China, its neighbors and nuclear powers. Yondon, who has a doctorate in international relations, said he visited the Elliott School to speak “not as an ambassador, but as a scholar.”

Yondon said knowledge of the history of Mongolia’s foreign relations with China and Russia, from Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan’s 13th-century regime to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, is essential to understand modern-day relations with the two countries.

“Many trends today we observe have their beginnings in those times,” Yondon said.

Yondon said that when Mongolia declared its independence in 1911 from the newly minted Republic of China, Russian support was instrumental in Mongolia’s success. He added that even though the United Nations recognized Mongolia’s sovereignty, the border between China and Mongolia remained contentious for years – China maintained claims on Mongolian territory until 2002.

“There were times when these borders were not peaceful,” Yondon said.

He said tension over Mongolia’s independence has historically put pressure on Mongolian-Chinese relations for many years. He said that despite the precedent, the current diplomatic thaw between the two nations is mutually beneficial to promote trade and economic cooperation.

Yondon, who characterized his country as “a very important source of energy for China,” also discussed a recent agreement between Mongolia and its northern and southern neighbors facilitating the construction of an oil pipeline through the three countries. He said the development could bolster Mongolia’s economy but voiced concern about the cost of the initiative.

“These projects are so big that if Mongolia is expected to bear the burden of this project, we simply cannot do it,” he said. “Our economy is simply too small to sustain this kind of project.”

Looking ahead, Yondon addressed the future of Mongolia both as an independent nation and as the neighbor of two global superpowers.

Mongolia shifted from a unitary socialist regime to a democratic system in 1990 after a revolution influenced by the fall of the Soviet Union, he said. When asked about the success of democracy in Mongolia almost three decades later, Yondon was positive.

“As far as democratic institutions are concerned, I would say we have been able to make this transfer,” Yondon said. “We have been able to hold general elections nine times and presidential elections five times, and every time, the power has been transferred peacefully.”

But Yondon also said the Mongolian government could take additional steps to help its citizens. He said the introduction of free-market economics in Mongolia has made it more difficult for working-class citizens to succeed – a contrast to his own upbringing during Mongolia’s period of socialist rule.

“Because I did well in my secondary school, they picked me out for the University of Moscow,” Yondon said, referring to the socialist government. “I cannot imagine this situation taking place now.”

Rare Przewalski Foal Born, To Be Reintroduced To Mongolia www.paulickreport.com

A rare breed, the Przewalski's horse was once completely extinct in the wild. Breeding in captivity has kept the breed alive and a female was recently born in a wild animal park in Ashford, UK, at the Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve.

Russia’s grain exports surge more than 54% this year www.rt.com

Exports of Russia’s wheat and meslin flour expanded by 54.3 percent from January through September of 2018 against the same period a year ago, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Customs Service.
In terms of money, the grain exports reportedly amounted to $6 billion, marking a 62 percent growth. In September alone, the value of grain exports increased by 1.4 percent compared to the same period a year ago and totaled $898.1 million.