1 GOLD AND COPPER PRICES SURGE WWW.UBPOST.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      2 REGISTRATION FOR THE ULAANBAATAR MARATHON 2025 IS NOW OPEN WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      3 WHY DONALD TRUMP SHOULD MEET KIM JONG- UN AGAIN – IN MONGOLIA WWW.LOWYINSTITUTE.ORG  PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      4 BANK OF MONGOLIA PURCHASES 281.8 KILOGRAMS OF PRECIOUS METALS IN MARCH WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      5 P. NARANBAYAR: 88,000 MORE CHILDREN WILL NEED SCHOOLS AND KINDERGARTENS BY 2030 WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      6 B. JAVKHLAN: MONGOLIA'S FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES REACH USD 5 BILLION WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      7 185 CASES OF MEASLES REGISTERED IN MONGOLIA WWW.AKIPRESS.COM PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      8 MONGOLIAN JUDGE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE APPEALS CHAMBER OF THE ICC WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/01      9 HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER TO BE ESTABLISHED IN PHASES WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/01      10 LEGAL INCONSISTENCIES DISRUPT COAL TRADING ON EXCHANGE WWW.UBPOST.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/01      УСТСАНД ТООЦОГДОЖ БАЙСАН УЛААНБУРХАН ӨВЧИН ЯАГААД ЭРГЭН ТАРХАХ БОЛОВ? WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     САНГИЙН ЯАМ: ДОТООД ҮНЭТ ЦААСНЫ АРИЛЖАА IV/16-НААС МХБ-ЭЭР НЭЭЛТТЭЙ ЯВАГДАНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     МОНГОЛБАНКНЫ ҮНЭТ МЕТАЛЛ ХУДАЛДАН АВАЛТ ӨМНӨХ САРААС 56 ХУВИАР, ӨМНӨХ ОНЫ МӨН ҮЕЭС 35.1 ХУВИАР БУУРАВ WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     Б.ЖАВХЛАН: ГАДААД ВАЛЮТЫН НӨӨЦ ТАВАН ТЭРБУМ ДОЛЛАРТ ХҮРСЭН WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     1072 ХУВЬЦААНЫ НОГДОЛ АШИГ 93 500 ТӨГРӨГИЙГ ЭНЭ САРД ОЛГОНО WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     Н.УЧРАЛ: Х.БАТТУЛГА ТАНД АСУУДЛАА ШИЙДЭХ 7 ХОНОГИЙН ХУГАЦАА ӨГЧ БАЙНА WWW.NEWS.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     “XANADU MINES” КОМПАНИ "ХАРМАГТАЙ" ТӨСЛИЙН ҮЙЛ АЖИЛЛАГААНЫ УДИРДЛАГЫГ “ZIJIN MINING”-Д ШИЛЖҮҮЛЭЭД БАЙНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     ТӨМӨР ЗАМЫН БАРИЛГЫН АЖЛЫГ ЭНЭ САРЫН СҮҮЛЭЭР ЭХЛҮҮЛНЭ WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     “STEPPE GOLD”-ИЙН ХУВЬЦААНЫ ХАНШ 4 ХУВИАР ӨСЛӨӨ WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     ҮЙЛДВЭРЛЭЛИЙН ОСОЛ ӨНГӨРСӨН ОНД ХОЁР ДАХИН НЭМЭГДЖЭЭ WWW.GOGO.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/01    

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Events

Events

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MBCC “Doing Business with Mongolia seminar and Christmas Receptiom” Dec 10. 2024 London UK MBCCI London UK Goodman LLC

NEWS

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NURA AI health screening center starts working in Mongolia www.akipress.com

Tavan Bogd Group opened the Fujifilm's NURA AI health screening center in Mongolia yesterday, Montsame reports. The Nura Mongolia can serve up to 30,000 people per year using the AI-powered technologies of Fujifilm Corporation, the world leader in medical devices.
The Nura Center utilizes Fujifilm's medical devices, including a CT scan and mammography system, as well as a medical IT system based on AI technology designed to support doctors in carrying out screening and tests for cancer and lifestyle diseases.
The medical devices diagnose the ten most common types of cancer and lifestyle diseases with 99.6% accuracy, taking 32 tests for early detection and diagnosis, in 120 minutes. It can also identify symptoms of diseases that doctors may miss and display the doctor's opinion and advice on the screen in a way that is easy to understand.
"The Fujifilm's AI health screening devices is a significant step forward in the fight against cancer and lifestyle diseases. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of Mongolia faced a challenge in implementing the National Campaign for preventive checkups and early detection. The NURA center provides a valuable service that will help to improve the health and well-being of Mongolians," Prime Minister of Mongolia Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai noted.
In his opening remarks, President of the Tavan Bogd Group Ts. Baatarsaikhan emphasized the importance of early detection of lifestyle diseases using Nura Center's state-of-the-art medical equipment for timely medical advice and treatment, reducing disease complications and mortality rates and increasing the average life expectancy of Mongolians.
 
 
 
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Spirit, sounds of Mongolia come to Johnstown arena www.tribdem.com

The spirit and sounds of Mongolia filled a small side room for a few minutes on Saturday at 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial in downtown Johnstown.
Members of The HU, a band that blends the traditional folk music of their country and heavy metal, educated some VIPs about their instruments – the tovshuur (Mongolian guitar), the jaw harp and the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) – and about throat singing and their culture before performing a full concert as an opening act later Saturday.
Tovshuur player Temuulen “Temka” Naranbaatar shared his thoughts about the experience, speaking through an interpreter.
“They have a mission to spread Mongolian culture around the world,” the interpreter translated. “They take it very seriously. They got the Order of Chinggis Khaan, one of the highest medals bestowed. They got that and they were like cultural ambassadors.
“They’re trying to live up to expectations set by Mongolian people to spread our culture around.”
“Temka” has been playing his native music throughout his life.
“He came from a family of musicians, so ever since he was aware of his surroundings, he knew he was going to be living in part of a musical culture, musical world,” the interpreter said. “The HU is one of the great opportunities that he got to spread what he loves and practiced his whole life, and spread it to everyone around the world.”
About two dozen fans, including Dennell and Eric Jurgensen, from near Binghamton, New York, and Shawn Leslie, of Allegheny County, attended the special session.
“We go to a lot of rock concerts, a lot of metal shows, but this is just very different,” Dennell Jurgensen said. “We were excited about the chance to see something that is very different. Every time we hear the songs on the radio, it’s very interesting and unique. We just thought it would be really cool to see the guys do it up close, learn more about their instruments and see some of the magic behind what they do.”
Eric Jurgensen said The HU’s sound is “very different from the music that we’re used to listening to.”
He added: “It’s pretty interesting to come down and learn about how they do it and how they make the music that they do, especially with the deep voices, too.”
Leslie said the music “puts you back as you would imagine it from years ago.”
“I just started following them about less than a year ago,” Leslie said. “I’m excited. It’s different. It’s a nice cultural experience, something new. I like the way they blend it in with rock kind of music, a harder vibe. Very cool.”
 
 
 
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Mongolia's energy market: key policies and government initiatives www.energyportal.eu

Mongolia's energy market has experienced significant growth and transformation in recent years, driven by a combination of domestic demand, regional integration and global market trends. As a resource-rich country with vast reserves of coal, uranium and renewable energy potential, Mongolia has attracted significant investment and interest from energy companies and international governments. To take advantage of these opportunities and ensure sustainable development, the Mongolian government has implemented a series of key policies and initiatives aimed at promoting energy security, diversifying the energy mix and fostering regional cooperation.
One of the most important policy frameworks guiding Mongolia's energy market is the National Energy Policy (SPE), which was adopted in 2015 and sets out the government's strategic vision for the sector until 2030. SPE aims to increase energy production, improve energy efficiency. , and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while promoting the development of renewable energy sources and regional integration. To achieve these goals, the SPE sets out a series of specific targets and measures, including increasing the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix to 20% by 2023 and 30% by 2030, as well as reducing energy losses in transport and distribution networks.
In addition to the SPE, the Mongolian government has also introduced a number of other key policies and initiatives aimed at promoting energy security and diversification. For example, the Renewable Energy Law, which was first adopted in 2007 and subsequently amended in 2015, provides a legal framework for the development of renewable energy projects in the country, including wind, solar and hydroelectric. The law includes provisions regarding feed-in tariffs, power purchase agreements and tax incentives for renewable energy producers, as well as the obligation for network operators to prioritize the sending of renewable energy sources.
Another important initiative in Mongolia's energy market is the development of the country's first nuclear power plant, which is expected to be operational by 2030. The government has signed agreements with international partners, including Russia and China, to cooperate in the construction and operation of the nuclear power plant. plant, which will be based on advanced reactor technology and safety standards. The development of nuclear power in Mongolia is seen as a key step toward reducing the country's dependence on coal-fired power plants, which currently account for around 80% of total electricity generation and are a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition to its domestic policies and initiatives, the Mongolian government has also actively engaged in regional energy cooperation, particularly with its neighbors Russia and China. In 2018, Mongolia, Russia and China signed a trilateral agreement to establish a joint working group on energy cooperation, aiming to promote the development of cross-border energy infrastructure and the exchange of electricity, natural gas and other energy resources. This cooperation should help Mongolia diversify its energy sources, improve its energy security and facilitate the integration of its energy market with those of its neighbors.
Finally, the Mongolian government has also sought to attract foreign investment and expertise in the energy sector through a series of initiatives, including the establishment of the Invest Mongolia Agency, which provides support and assistance to international investors interested in the country's energy market. The government has also signed a number of bilateral investment treaties and agreements with countries such as the United States, Japan and South Korea, which provide legal protections and guarantees to foreign investors in the investment sector. energy.
In conclusion, Mongolia's energy market is going through a period of rapid growth and transformation, driven by a combination of domestic demand, regional integration and global market trends. The Mongolian government has implemented a series of key policies and initiatives aimed at promoting energy security, diversifying the energy mix and fostering regional cooperation, which are expected to shape the future development of the sector and contribute to the country's sustainable development .
 
 
 
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Iron concentrate trade begins www.theubposts.com

September 15, Mongolian Stock Exchange JSC has started the first trading of iron concentrate after expanding the mining products exchange.
Mongolrostsvetmet and Darkhan Metallurgical Plant are scheduled to sell a total of 78,800 tons of iron concentrate in three rounds of trading. As for the minimum asking price, concentrate with 58 percent content is 56 USD, and iron concentrate with 65 percent content is 90 USD to 93 USD. By the resolution of the Board of Directors of Mongolian Stock Exchange, “Procedures for establishing and implementing standards for trading contracts for iron ore and concentrates” have been approved, and Mongolrostsvetmet and Darkhan Metallurgical Plant have been registered as sellers and signed contracts.
After that, the government announced that it was preparing to trade silver and copper on the exchange. Minerals traded on the exchange will be taken out through a special border crossing.
Manager of Copper and Metal Group of Erdenes Mongol LLC Ts.Tugsbuyan said, “Erdenes Mongol is starting the process of trading mining products at international market prices, including trading of iron ore for the first time with the help of MSE. We export three types of iron ore concentrate. In 2023, more than one million tons of iron ore concentrate is expected to be traded on the exchange. Currently, seven batches of 21,000 tons of iron concentrate with a content of 65 percent have been ordered for trading. I would like to express my gratitude to the management and colleagues of MSE for their support until this day.” Executive Director of Darkhan Metallurgical Plant G.Dugarjav stated, “We are witnessing the historical process of trading iron ore concentrate on the stock exchange for the first time in Mongolia. The main advantage of trading products on the exchange is that the product is sold at a higher price than the nominal price. Previously, we used to charge 50 percent of the base price for our trades, but by trading our products on the Mongolian Stock Exchange, we have a huge advantage of 100 percent settlement and increased cash flow. At the same time, by creating an open and transparent market system for the circulation of wealth in the economy, MSE is bringing great progress to the country’s economy.”
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President of Mongolia Meets President of the Republic of Cuba www.montsame.mn

The President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa and the President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel y Bermúdez have held a meeting.
President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, who arrived in Cuba for participating in the Summit on Science, Technology, and Innovation of the Group of 77 in Havana, congratulated Cuba for chairing the Group of 77 in 2023 and hosting the Summit.
President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel y Bermúdez noted that the Government of Cuba decided to increase further the scholarship, granted to Mongolian youth for many years.
The Heads of State of the two countries discussed the expansion of relations and cooperation, including the development of cooperation in the fields of health, biotechnology, culture, education, agriculture, production of biological and natural products, and sports, increasing student exchange, and other matters of mutual interest.
The President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel y Bermúdez accepted the invitation of the President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa to visit Mongolia at his convenience and expressed his intention to visit in 2024.
Mongolia and the Republic of Cuba established diplomatic relations on December 7, 1960. The countries have traditional and friendly relations. From the Mongolian side, high-level representatives of the party and government led by Tsedenbal Yumjaa visited Cuba in 1972, while from the Cuban side, then Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Army General Raul Castro Ruz visited Mongolia in 1970.
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First Ever Performance of Morin Khuur Ensemble at Sydney Opera House www.montsame.mn

In the frame of the official visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs B.Battsetseg to the Commonwealth of Australia, the Cultural Envoy of Mongolia – Morin Khuur Ensemble presented its performance "The Beautiful Country of Mongolia" for the first time at the world-famous Sydney Opera House on September 14, 2023.
The opening remarks were delivered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh, President of the New South Wales Legislative Council the Honorable Ben Franklin, First Assistance Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia Mr. Gary Cowan. More than 2200 guests attended the concert including Her Excellency the Honorable Margaret Beazley, Governor of New South Wales, representatives of the Australian Government and businesses, Heads of Diplomatic Corps in Australia, as well as representatives of Mongolian associations and non-governmental organizations.
In her opening remarks, Foreign Minister B.Battsetseg highlighted that Mongolia-Australia relations and cooperation are successfully expanding and developing in many fields such as education and culture within the Expanded Partnership and people-to-people ties are being further strengthened. The Minister also invited Australian tourists to visit beautiful Mongolia and experience its rich history, culture and traditions within the “Years to Visit Mongolia” campaign.
The Morin Khuur Ensemble performed over 20 national, folk and classical pieces from its rich repertoire on the iconic stage of the Sydney Opera House, and the audience delightfully applauded the first ever performance of Mongolian artists.
UNESCO World Heritage Site and a unique architectural symbol of modern Australia – the Sydney Opera House is the green continent's most renowned and crowded center of arts and culture, welcoming over 11 million visitors and hosting over 1,800 events a year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively engaged in developing cultural cooperation with countries worldwide and promoting Mongolian culture and history through the comprehensive “Values of the Mongolian Nation” campaign. Over its 31-year history, the Morin Khuur Ensemble has performed more than 650 concerts in over 30 countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia through its diplomatic missions abroad has enabled opportunities for our artists to showcase their talents on renowned global stages including Japan’s NHK Hall and the Sydney Opera House. The preparations are in full swing for their next performances to be held at historical landmarks in Paris and Nantes.
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Latest-technology food factory launches www.theubposts.com

September 13, “Makh Impex” JSC, Mongolia’s oldest food factory with a 77-year history, has expanded its production quality and standards in 2023 and put into operation a new factory that meets world standards. In relations to the project carried out with BERTSCHLaska group from Austria, they received the keys to their new factory from the company.
Deputy Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry M.Gankhuleg and Head of Department of Food Factory Policy Implementation D.Dovchinsuren took part in the opening ceremony and got acquainted with the new Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) factory.
The factory, which introduces not only modern equipment but also new standards, is the fourth high-standard factory opened in Asia. The new plant has the capacity to produce 50 tons of products per day such as, sausages, salami, semi-finished, smoked, and frozen products (dumplings, buuz, pizza, Asian fast food, and so on).
In addition, Makh Impex will implement a project of building a refrigerated warehouse for food with a budget of 150 billion MNT, as well as a 40-ton capacity meat thawing and sorting plant with BERTSCHLaska.
Makh Impex is an enterprise that participates in the revolving loan program implemented within the framework of Parliament Resolution No. 36, expanding its activities, increasing the variety of products, uses advanced techniques and technologies in its production, and pays great attention to product quality and safety.
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Shortest route to sea to be built through China www.theubposts.com

Transport Minister S.Byambatsogt worked in Liaoning Province, China. He met with the provincial chairman Li Leqing and Vice Governor of the Provincial People’s Government Jin Guowei, to introduce road infrastructure projects and invite them to cooperate. Liaoning Province is the most important strategic city in China with six seaports. It ranks first in the country in terms of economic indicators and has a population of 43 million. Mongolia is the main part of the transport corridor connecting Asia and Europe. In that sense, Sukhbaatar Province’s Bichigt port is aiming to have the shortest route to the sea through China’s Jinzhou port. The shipping route from Bichigt to Jinzhou Port is 866 km. Therefore, as part of the New Revival Policy put forward by the government, the government intends to implement major projects such as building a railway in the east region with Choibalsan-Huut-Bichigt and Sainshand-Baruun-Urt-Huut-Bichigt routes, increase capacity and build freight terminals of Bichigt border port, and connect Bichigt port with a paved road. With the implementation of these projects, there will be a new circle of economic and social development cooperation between Mongolia, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea in the Eastern region, and we will have the shortest route to the sea. In addition, investments in the eastern region will increase, and the development of road, transport, energy, mining, and heavy and light industries will reach a completely new level. Trade and transportation will be facilitated, and the cost of transportation of goods will be significantly reduced. New jobs will be created and the standard of living of citizens will increase. Gross domestic product will increase dramatically and provide economic growth.

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How an American racing driver and war in Mongolia helped to defeat Hitler www.spectator.co.uk

Of all the ‘practice’ wars that preceded the main events of the second world war, including the Spanish civil war and the winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union, the least well known is the four-month war on the Mongolia-Manchurian border between the Soviet Union and Japan that ended in September 1939.
This is not surprising, perhaps, because British attention was (and still is) more focused on Hitler’s invasion of Poland that took place two weeks earlier. Even the participants downplay the importance of a war that took place in a remote corner of Mongolia. Japan refers to it as the Nomonhan Incident while Russia calls it the Battle of Khalkin Gol after the river that runs through the region.
Britain is not famed for its geopolitical interest in Mongolia. But the fate of this country as well as Siberia did briefly occupy the minds of our diplomats, politicians and soldiers from the end of the first world war. Strangely this short war, fought across a river some 6,000 miles from Great Britain would have a significant impact on Britain in the second world war.
But first some background. After Genghis Khan had established a Mongol Empire in 1206, Mongolia briefly ruled the world’s most powerful country, China. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China in 1271 and the Yuan dynasty (the first non-Han dynasty) ruled an empire that consisted of Mongolia, Korea and southern Siberia. Just shy of 100 years later, in 1368, the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by peasant born Zhu Yanzhang who founded the Ming dynasty. Thereafter Mongolia slunk into somnolent decline. In the 19th century Mongolia was absorbed into the Chinese Empire of the Manchurian Qing dynasty which ruled it as a vassal state.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century Mongolia was sucked into the vortex of global geopolitical instability that featured the overthrow of the Qing dynasty by Sun Yat Sen’s revolution in 1911, the fall of the Russian Imperial family, the Romanovs, in 1917, the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, and the collapse of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922.
It is one of the ‘what-ifs’ of history how things might have turned out if Japan had won their 1939 border war in Mongolia. If Japan had decided to focus on the conquest of Mongolia and Siberia rather than China, would the US have ever entered the second world war?
In the chaos, Mongolia launched its bid for freedom. In 1911 a Buddhist theocratic state was established under Bogd Khan, the eighth Jebtsundamba Khutuktu (Holy Precious Master), who ruled a country where one in three men were monks – Mongolia had been proselytised by the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism in the 16th century. For the next decade Mongolia slipped in an out of independence during the Zhili-Fengtian wars of the northern warlords and their international backers, which included not only Russia but also Japan, Britain, and America.
The White Russian-Bolshevik wars featured a dubious cast of military chancers, including Nikolai Robert Maximillian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg otherwise known as the ‘Mad Baron’. Born from a family of German aristocrats, he claimed descent from Gengis Khan and dreamt of rebuilding the Mongol empire. To further his ambitions, he entered a dynastic marriage with a Manchurian princess. The Mad Baron, a ferocious bully, antisemite, sadist, mystic and drunkard, was nevertheless a brilliant horseman and cavalry officer. Above all he was known as a fanatical anti-communist who believed, not without reason, that, ‘we are not fighting a political party but a sect of murderers of all contemporary spiritual culture.’
The Mad Baron led a White Russian force determined to restore the Romanovs. First in 1921 he led a White Russian-Mongolian force that restored Bogd Khan to the leadership of an independent Mongolia. For his efforts, Baron Ungern-Sternberg is still commemorated in Mongolia as well as by conservatives in his native Estonia.
However, the Mad Baron’s success was short lived. In August 1921, he was defeated while supporting anti-Soviet forces in Siberia. Captured by the Bolsheviks, he was tried and put in front of a firing squad. Thereafter Bogd Khan ruled under Bolshevik ‘protection’. When this last Jebtsundamba Khutuktu died of cancer – or more likely poisoning – in 1924, he was not replaced. The Soviets consolidated their grip over Mongolia with the establishment of a Communist Mongolian People’s Republic.
The Soviets, both in Mongolia and Siberia, were helped by the withdrawal of the pro-White Russian Siberian expeditionary army that comprised Japanese, American, British, Italian, French, Belgium, Polish, Serb, Rumanian, and Chinese forces, which had landed in Vladivostok in August 1918 to engage the Bolsheviks. Their objectives were hopelessly divided by their nations’ conflicting operational parameters. The western forces had been primarily interested in ‘rescuing’ the Czech legion that was fighting its way out of Russia, and in preventing war material getting into the hands of the yet to be defeated German army. In addition, some, like Churchill, supported an ani-communist crusade.
Meanwhile Japan’s main interest in Mongolia and Siberia, emphasised by its provision of a 72,000 strong force, was to prevent the resurrection of Russian/Soviet power in the region after the collapse of Romanov rule. In this they failed. White Russian resistance to the Bolsheviks crumbled and in 1922 Japan was the last foreign power to withdraw its army.
That did not end Japan’s interest in Mongolia and Siberia. As in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, Japan feared growing Soviet power in the east. Its renewed energy under the Bolsheviks was a prospect of grave geopolitical concern. It should be remembered that fear of western expansionism, particularly that of the United States, was the driving force behind the Japanese revolution that inspired the overthrow of the Shogunate in 1869, the so-called Meiji Restoration. Japan’s new government was determined not become a colony or a vassal to a foreign power; in 1939 the Soviet Union seemed a greater threat than the United States.
The geopolitical significance of the Soviet Union’s annexation of Mongolia was most keenly felt by Japan’s Kwantung Army in Korea which had won the right to control the South Manchurian Railway zone after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Later it was fear of the Soviet Union that was the key reason for Japan’s annexation of the whole of Manchuria in 1931 and their subsequent invasion of northern China. With some degree of logic, Japan’s leaders began to fear that unless it took control of a weak Chinese state, the Soviet Union would fill the power vacuum. By 1939 therefore, it was not Chinese and Mongolians troops, but mainly Japanese and Soviet forces, that glared at each other across the borders of Siberia, Mongolia and Manchuria.
Relations had been testy for a while. In 1932 Japan had rejected a Soviet offer of a non-aggression pact. Over the next four years there were over 400 border incidents between the countries. More serious clashes took place in 1937 and in 1938 the Soviets lost 96 tanks and 792 troops at the Battle of Changkufeng (or Lake Khasan). It was a clear Japanese victory. Japanese foreign minister, Sadao Araki went as far as to suggest that, ‘if the Soviets do not cease to annoy us, I shall have to purge Siberia as one cleans a room of flies.’
The following year, in May 1939, following a seemingly innocuous incursion by Mongol horsemen across the Khalkin Gol river, full scale war broke out on the Mongolian-Manchurian border. The Nomonhan Incident/Battle of Khalkin Gol war was a classic border demarcation dispute fought over a worthless piece of land. This time the tables were turned on Japan. In June the arrival of the brilliant tank commander General Georgy Zhukov (of Battle of Stalingrad fame) led to a 500-tank attack which swept back Japanese troops that had crossed the river. As Zhukov noted, ‘Our trump cards were the armoured divisions.’ In aggregate the war cost some 50,000 casualties.
Japanese tanks proved to be no match for Zhukov’s fast-moving BT-7 tanks. Curiously the core technology for the BT-7 and its immediate successor the T-34 was provided by American racing driver, John Walter Christie. Born at River Edge, New Jersey in 1865, George Christie trained as an engineer but first found fame as a racing driver with a revolutionary front wheel driven car that he had designed. In 1905 he became the first American to drive in the French Grand Prix.
After a brief flirtation building fire engines, American engagement in the first world war encouraged Christie to design military vehicles. From 1916 to 1942 Christie designed tanks but never succeeded in selling more than a handful of sample models to the US Army. It was a failure for which the US Ordnance Department would later be much criticised. Christie’s key technological breakthrough came with the development of the M1928 tank, which its inventor believed to be a decade ahead of its time. Its unique suspension system enabled it to travel at 28 mph compared to the 9.9 mph of America’s existing first world war tanks.
Despite the strong backing of General George Patton, who would become America’s most famed tank commander, the US Army failed to capitalise on Christie’s developments. As a US congressman told Patton: ‘This is a wonderful tank, George, no doubt the best I’ve ever seen. But we aren’t about to buy it, you know that. I doubt we would even if it drove up the steps of Capitol Hill full of votes. We just can’t spend money on it.’
Indeed on the eve of the second world war, the American army, with fewer than 100,000 combat troops was smaller than those of Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. As Henry Stimson, US Secretary of Defence noted:
‘We did not have enough [gun] powder in the whole United States to last the men we now have fighting overseas for anything like a day’s fighting, and what is worse we did not have…the plants or facilities to make it; they had all been destroyed after the last war.’
Foreign governments were not so lackadaisical about rearmament in the 1930s. Christie’s designs were snapped by Britain for the Cruiser tank which was widely used in the early years of the war in North Africa. More importantly a visiting Soviet delegation spotted the brilliance of Christie’s innovations and purchased two sample tanks, spare parts and technical rights and patents for US $164,000. They were smuggled out of America as a consignment of tractor parts.
On taking Christie’s designs back to the Soviet Union, manufacture of its T-18 tanks was shut down and production of the BT-7, using Christie’s innovations, was done in volumeat the Soviet’s biggest track factory in Kharkov (Ukraine). The experience of this the Soviet-Japanese border war in 1939, with lessons learned from the design flaws that became apparent in the BT-7, led to the development of the famed T-34 of which 84,000 would be built. The T-34 would eventually be used by 39 countries in 23 wars, invasions, and coups.
Most significantly on the eastern front in 1941, it was the T-34 which blunted Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia. Hitler, who had previously declared, ‘We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down’. He would later admit, ‘If I had known about the T-34, I would have delayed invading Russia’. Along with ‘General Winter’, the Christie inspired T-34 was arguably the most important weapon in Russia’s defeat of Germany in the second world war.
A T-34 Soviet tank in Berlin’s Tiergarten district (Getty)
If the development of the T-34 was an important consequence of the Mongolian-Siberian border war in 1939, the geopolitical results were even more consequential. Defeat in Mongolia quashed Japan’s appetite for ‘striking north’ – a priority for powerful sections of the Japanese Army in the 1930s. Led to a large extent by officers trained in Manchuria, the Japanese Army saw the Soviets as its prime enemy.
By contrast the Navy saw Japan’s future battleground as the Pacific Ocean with their prime enemy being the United States. It is one of the ‘what-ifs’ of history how things might have turned out if Japan had won their 1939 border war in Mongolia. If Japan had decided to focus on the conquest of Mongolia and Siberia rather than China, would the US have ever entered the second world war? After all American participation in the second world war was precipitated not in Europe but in Asia. It was Japan’s failure to accede to US demands to withdraw from China that led the US to cut Japan off from international financial as well as the oil production of Standard Oil of California, at that time the world’s biggest producer.
A very real consequence of the Russo-Japanese War in Mongolia and Manchuria in 1939 was that it led in due course to their April 1941 Neutrality Pact that would enable Stalin to concentrate his forces against Germany. This was no mean advantage. Allies benefitted enormously from Russia not having to split its forces between an eastern and western front.
But there were disadvantages that ensued from Japan’s defeat to Russia in the Mongolian border war. The Japanese defeat heightened the complacency of British forces in Singapore and Malaya. If Bolshevik Russia could knock over Japan, surely it would be a breeze for British troops to defeat Emperor Hirohito’s forces? When Japanese forces invaded Malaya (some 40 minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor) the British expectation was that they would be quickly rolled back.
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Churchill had been sure that Japan would not dare to attack the British Empire. Asked by a young British officer as he was sailing back from America after meeting Roosevelt, whether Japan would attack, Churchill replied, ‘No I don’t think so. If they do, they’ll find they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.’ When news arrived in Singapore that the Japanese troop transports had arrived off Kota Baru, Governor Sir Thomas Shenton replied to Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival (who would later surrender Singapore to Japan’s Imperial Army commanded by General Tomoyuki Yamashita), ‘Well, I suppose you’ll shove the little men off.’
A British resident at the time, Maisie Prout, summed up the zeitgeist of Britain’s Asian colonies thus:
‘We were so sure that the British forces would mop up the Japanese in no time…According to British propaganda, the Japanese were all bow-legged and squinty eyed and they all had very bad teeth… They would be annihilated before they reached Kuala Lumpur.’
It was a complacency regarding Japan’s military capabilities that similarly afflicted the United States forces in Hawaii and the Philippines. Thus, the little-known Mongolian-Manchurian war of 1939 was broadly consequential in both the nature and outcome of the second world war both on the eastern front and in Asia and the Pacific. Furthermore, this obscure border war is another reminder, if one were needed, that the second world war was as much an Asian war as a European war.
WRITTEN BY
Francis Pike
Francis Pike is a historian and author of Hirohito’s War, The Pacific War 1941-1945 and Empires at War: A Short History of Modern Asia Since World War II.
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Mongolia's central bank maintains interest rate at 13 pct www.xinhuanet.com

The Mongolian central bank's monetary policy council has decided to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 13 percent, the Bank of Mongolia said Saturday.
The decision was made "given the current and future state of the economy and financial markets, external and internal uncertainties or risks to the economy, and the slow pace of inflation towards the target level," Byadran Lkhagvasuren, governor of the Bank of Mongolia, told the media.
In mid-December last year, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate from 12 to 13 percent to stabilize the rate of inflation in the medium term, maintain the relative return of the Mongolian national currency, the Tugrik, and ensure both an internal and external balance of the economy.
According to the central bank, Mongolia's inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, rose 10 percent year-on-year in August.
The country aims to reduce its inflation rate to a single digit by the end of this year, the central bank said.
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