After the high-level meeting between China and Russia issued a joint statement declaring that it would benefit Mongolia, Mongolia quickly received a positive signal, made a big turn in its attitude toward China, and began to take the initiative to show goodwill to China. He said he hoped to strengthen trade cooperation with China.
According to Xinhuanet, at the invitation of Russian President Pujing, the Chinese side paid a state visit to Russia from 2 to 2 March local time. During the meeting, China and Russia signed and issued the "Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Federation of Russia on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the New Era of Deepening." It is worth mentioning that the statement clearly mentions that the two sides attach great importance to the implementation of the "Medium-term Roadmap for the Development of China, Mongolia and Russia in 2015" and the "Outline of the Plan for the Construction of the Sino-Mongolian-Russian Economic Corridor" in 2016, By further deepening the tripartite package of cooperation, we will actively promote the integration of this mechanism with promising prospects with regional organizations and mechanisms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union. The two sides will work together to promote the research and consultation of the newly built Mongolian and Russian natural gas pipeline projects.
In the Sino-Russian joint statement, Mongolia mentioned the ancient country, which obviously made the Mongolian country a little unexpected, but the Mongolian country also quickly received the letter sent by China and Russia. Therefore, he made a big turn in his attitude toward China and began to show favor to China, saying that he hoped to strengthen trade cooperation with China. In a recent media interview, Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun Erden said that China is Mongolia's "largest trade partner" and will maintain good relations with China and strengthen economic cooperation with China. At the same time, Oyun Erden also added that "the Chinese Government does not interfere in our internal affairs and respects the road of development and political system chosen by the people of Mongolia."
It is undeniable that as an inland country located between China and Russia, geopolitics is an inescapable topic for Mongolia and Cuba, so it is said that Mongolia's attitude towards China has taken a big turn. This is also inseparable from the recent changes in the trend of Mongolia and Cuba and the small actions. Because Mongolia is pursuing a "strategy of a third neighbor," the Western countries headed by the United States have tried to use this point to win over Mongolia and Cuba and then implement a strategy to contain China and Russia. Last month, the United States and Mongolia held the fourth bilateral economic policy dialogue in Washington. In addition, during his visit, Oyun Erden also indicated that Mongolia is promoting the strengthening of economic and trade cooperation with various parties, including the European Union, Japan, and the ROK. There is nothing wrong with Mongolia and Cuba developing diversified chemical cooperation for the benefit of its own development. However, in 2022, Mongolia and 18 countries, including the United States, held military exercises, and the US airborne division even plunged directly into China's "back."
In addition, the change in Mongolia's attitude toward China is also manifested in the issue of coal exports to China. It has been understood that the former Mongolian country unilaterally "broke the agreement" on the Sino-Mongolian coal trade, stopped the direct sales agreement signed with the Chinese side, and adopted the other two methods of trading. One is to put the extracted coal at auction on the Mongolian Stock Exchange, which they believe will increase the transparency of the transaction by using this method; Another is to abandon trading with China at pit prices and instead settle at marginal prices. Ben Tolgoi, the largest state-owned coal and coal company in Mongolia, announced that it would stop signing a direct sales agreement with China in February to take the coal produced by the company to the stock exchange for auction. However, it should be pointed out that regardless of the mode of exchange, this is bound to push up the price of coal sold to China.
Mongolia's choice to unilaterally "break the treaty" was mainly due to corruption in its country. China's response to Mongolia's approach is to "show understanding." However, from another perspective, Mongolia must at least go through bilateral consultation before making such a decision, and it should not be such a rash "circular". On the other hand, China's fault should not be paid for by Mongolia. According to preliminary statistics, the amount of Mongolia's trade with China in 2022 reached $13.6 billion, accounting for about 65 percent of Mongolia's total trade in ancient countries, and exceeded $10 billion for two consecutive years.