As soon as the SCO people left, Mongolia welcomed an American plane. While adopting a vague attitude towards the SCO and acting unusually positively towards the United States, it seems that Mongolia has not given up this illusion of a "third neighbor".
A few days ago, after accompanying Blinken to the G7 foreign ministers' meeting, the US Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nuland did not return to the United States, but directly came to Mongolia, a country sandwiched between China and Russia, and launched a meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun Erden.
News released by the United States
Speaking of Nuland's visit to Mongolia, there are two special features in terms of time, one is that it has been two months, and the second US deputy secretary of state has visited Mongolia. In February this year, US Deputy Secretary of State Zeya, who is responsible for civilian security, democracy and human rights, also made a special trip to Mongolia, which shows that Mongolia has obviously become a key diplomatic target of the United States, and Mongolia has also accepted all the orders, showing an unusually positive appearance of developing relations with the United States. Second, not long before the arrival of this US special plane, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming had just left Mongolia, less than half a month before and after.
It is worth noting that when meeting with SCO Secretary Zhang Ming and US Deputy Secretary of State Nuland, Mongolia also showed two different attitudes.
During the meeting with Zhang Ming, Mongolian President Khuzhilesukh reiterated that the country will maintain observer status and participate in the affairs of the SCO. In the context of the beginning of a new round of expansion of the SCO, we can guess that Zhang Ming's trip is to allow this country sandwiched between China and Russia to play a more participatory role in the SCO, and even join the SCO.
After all, Mongolia's credentials in SCO are actually very old. As early as 2004, Mongolia became an observer in the SCO, while India and Pakistan, which became observers a year after Mongolia, became full members of the SCO as early as 2017. Combined with the fact that Russia has repeatedly proposed to Mongolia to upgrade its participation level in the SCO, but all of them have been rejected by Mongolia on the grounds of "wanting to maintain the status quo", it can be seen that Mongolia has not become a member of the SCO, and the problem is not in the SCO, but in Mongolia.
Therefore, Zhang Ming's trip is most likely to be vaguely responded to the SCO invitation by Mongolia for similar reasons.
SCO Secretary Zhang Ming
But when receiving Nuland, Mongolia showed another attitude, according to foreign media leaks, when Nuland and Oyun Erden met, the two sides not only discussed Mongolia's "third neighbor" policy, they also stressed that they hoped that the United States and Mongolia could maintain "ideological" unity and develop a strategic partnership on this basis.
What is this signal? As a country sandwiched between China and Russia, and relying on cooperation with China and Russia to develop its economy, Mongolia has chosen to maintain ideological unity with the West. This means that in political affairs, Mongolia hopes to follow the Western countries led by the United States.
Mongolia's idea caters to the psychology of the United States that wants to create a wedge between China and Russia. For the United States, Mongolia's unique geographical location can become its grip on both China and Russia, and squeeze the strategic space of China and Russia, so the United States has always been very active in developing relations with Mongolia, and once it receives the signal that Mongolia also wants to develop relations with the United States, it will inevitably carry out a certain penetration in Mongolia, which is an undesirable situation for China and Russia.
Nuland and Oyun Erden
Therefore, Mongolia's acceptance of the United States is tantamount to sacrificing relations with China and Russia, and it is also equivalent to taking relations with China and Russia as a bet to deepen relations with the United States and other Western countries, sacrifice the interests of real neighbors, and develop a virtual "third neighbor".
You know, if Mongolia's economy wants to develop, it is inseparable from cooperation with China and Russia, as a country sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia wants to trade with foreign countries, whether it is air or land transportation, can not avoid transiting either side of China and Russia; Moreover, from the perspective of Mongolia's economic structure, the country's main economic source is coal exports, and China is Mongolia's largest coal exporter and Mongolia's largest trading partner. Relevant data show that in 2022, the trade volume between China and Mongolia will reach 13.6 billion US dollars, accounting for 65% of Mongolia's total trade, which means that more than half of Mongolia's foreign trade volume is contributed by China.
Sino-Mongolian trade accounts for the majority of Mongolia's trade volume
It can be seen that if Mongolia's economy wants to develop, it is impossible to leave either country in China and Russia, but Mongolia, which relies on cooperation with China and Russia to develop its economy, still said to the United States that it wants to maintain ideological consistency.
It is true that as a landlocked country, Mongolia is right to want to pursue a path of diplomatic diversification, but this cannot be at the expense of relations with China and Russia, or even at the expense of the interests of China and Russia. Mongolia's geographical location is already here, before casting a name to the West and wanting to develop a "third neighbor", Mongolia may wish to think about how much Mongolia can win at the expense of relations with neighboring countries?