Washington: Mongolia, US to extend uncommon earths cooperation

Mongolia’s Prime Minister, Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, and Overseas Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh arrived in Washington on Tuesday to fulfill with Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and different senior U.S. officers. This marks the primary official go to of a Mongolian PM to the US since 2018.

Oyun-Erdene on Wednesday stated that the nation will deepen cooperation with the US to mine uncommon earths. He warned that the world financial system would undergo significantly from a “new Chilly Struggle” between the USA and China.

Mongolia has an abundance of uncommon earth metals and copper- supplies important for high-tech purposes and protection tools. Mongolia’s uncommon earth reserves make up 16% of the world’s whole. These metals are additionally important for electrifying the auto market, as POTUS Joe Biden intends, to avert the local weather disaster.

What else was mentioned within the assembly?

Oyun-Erdene agreed to signal an “Open Skies” civil aviation settlement with the US, together with guarantees of accelerating financial cooperation. 

The PM termed the US as its “essential strategic third neighbour”. He stated that cooperation on uncommon earths with the US is already underway, and could be additional deepened below an MoU signed between Mongolia’s Ministry of Mining and Heavy Trade and the US State Division in June.

New chilly conflict

China presently controls many of the world’s uncommon earth deposits. Mongolia hopes to have a great relationship with China in addition to the US.  Nevertheless, Mongolia is landlocked between China and Russia, regarding the PM in regards to the penalties of superpower competitors.

As regards to the fast tempo of technical development and world points like local weather change, Oyun-Erdene added, “I worry that the brand new Chilly Struggle will likely be very totally different and (extra) tough than the primary Chilly Struggle.” We “can not face up to a recent Chilly Struggle state of affairs”.

He urged main powers to “be extra accountable” to keep away from “drastic unfavourable results on many nations world wide, particularly the worldwide financial system.”

Different collaborations:

Mongolia is in talks with Elon Musk, TESLA CEO,  over attainable funding within the electrical automobile sector and area. The PM wouldn’t be assembly with Musk throughout this go to, however has stated that he’s planning to go to California to fulfill business leaders on a separate journey later.

Oyun-Erdene introduced up Musk’s curiosity in Mars, which the billionaire has acknowledged he desires to colonise. He added, “I inspired Mr. Elon Musk to conduct some analysis on this, and one attention-grabbing matter that I discussed with him was the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, which has an analogous atmosphere to Mars”

Throughout his go to, Oyun-Erdene is scheduled to go to NASA and is predicted to fulfill Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

USA: a guiding Polar Star

The Mongolian Prime Minister labelled the US because the “guiding Polar Star for our democratic journey”. He stated that his go to to the US would cowl discussions on how one can additional improve democratic values.

Mongolia shares a border with Russia, an adversary of the US. Based on Oyun-Erdene, Mongolia has suffered from the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final 12 months, together with the inflation of products like mining explosives.

A part of the explanation that the Biden administration is emphasizing collaboration and cooperation with Asian nations like Mongolia is to counter China’s “no-limits” partnership with Russia.