Mongolia peers towards West

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 47

Mongolia peers towards West

By GRAHAM EARNSHAW NZPA-Reuter Ulan Bator The isolated central Asian country of Mongolia is beginning to peer out cautiously towards the West, but it is also being careful to emphasise that its relationship with Moscow remains the top priority. This has already been a landmark year for Mongolia, which became the world’s second communist nation In 1921 and has been dominated by the Soviet Union ever since. In January, Ulan Bator established diplomatic relations with Washington, and recently the United Nation’s . Secretary-Gen-eral, Javier Peres de Cuellar, paid the first visit by a United Nations chief ■ to Mongolia. J. • Mongolia’s Foajjgn Minr ister, Mangalyn Duger-

suren, recently visited Japan and Australia, the first trip by a Mongolian Foreign Minister to either country. In June, a delegation from China’s National People’s Congress headed by the congress standing committee vice-chairman, Peng Chong, will visit Mongolia, said diplomats in Ulan Bator. It will be the most senior Chinese delegation to visit Mongolia in a quarter of a century. - < There was little doubt about where the inspiration for Mongolia’s newfound interest in looking beyond the Soviet bloc had come from. . "The great catalyst for change has been the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev,” said a diplomat Mongolia’s UnkA with the West at preiArt are few and it remains very

much a closed, sparselypopulated buffer State between China and the Soviet Union. ’ About 97 per cent of its total foreign trade is conducted with Soviet bloc countries. The only Western countries with . embassies in Ulan Bator are Britain and Japan. It has been a member of the United Nations since 1961 but takes virtually no part in the activities of any United Nations agency. It has transport links with only two countries — the Soviet Union and China. Diplomats said the es- ' tablishment of diplomatic relations with the United States in particular could help to prize Mongolia out of its isolation, but no-one saw its close links with Moscow being loosened. The Russians are very '

high profile'in Mongolia, with an estimated 60,000 Soviet troops and perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 specialists and their families. There is a statue of the former Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, in Ulan Bator and the Soviet Embassy In central Ulan Bator/ one of the tallest buildings in the city, was described by a Western diplomat in Peking as “the Viceroy’s residence.” But others point out that Mongolia has done well from the Soviet connection. Moscow and its allies have poured huge, amounts of aid into Mon-' golia in recent decades, giving Mongolians a surprisingly high standard of living by Asian standards. Not all Mongolians are happy living under Moscow’s shadow. Foreign residents say there is much hostility from Mon-

golians towards the tens of thousands of Russians in their country. But as one diplomat said, “Given its position, Mongolia has only two foreign policy options — alliance with the Soviet Union or with China. At least the Soviet link has brought them into the modem world faster than China could have done.” Mongolian officials are naturally unhappy with the view of Mongolia as a pawn of the Soviet Union. “We are an independent State but we have coordinated foreign policies, just like the Western countries," said a senior Foreign Ministry official, J. Enkhsaihan. The Vice-Foreign Minister, Khumbagiin Olzvoy, emphasised that the recent moves by Mongolia towards building. more links'With the "Jest did hot indicate in

direction. “It is the foreign policyprinciple of our country that we first develop political and economic relations with socialist community countries. “A second important principle is to develop and strengthen relations with newly-emerged liberated countries. We give very high priority to the principle of peaceful coexistence with different socio-economic systems," he said. That may be so, but a sign of the times is that diplomats say Mongolia is now eager to expand the number of its officials who speak the English language. “It has finally dawned on them that English is a very useful language in the international arena and that they cannot get by solely on Russian,” said a diplomat