Letters | Russia and China’s renewed closeness benefits Mongolia

Readers discuss the implications of Russia-China relations for Mongolia, and what the US president must accomplish before his term ends

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Soldiers ride horses during the opening ceremony of Mongolia’s National Day festival in Ulaanbaatar on July 11, 2022. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:30pm, 25 Apr 2023

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I have a theory: a country is independent if providing other countries with jobs and commodities and dependent if instead it is in need of the two. As a Russian, I often see manual labourers from Central Asia and everyone knows that all countries import hi-tech Chinese products. But what about Mongolia?

My father who directed a radio station in Kyzyl in Siberia once went to that country on a business trip. He said he saw no foreign workers there and only Czech and German broadcasting equipment at a local station. I do occasionally see Mongolian goods, only visiting Kyzyl and never in the Russian capital.

That country’s attempt to reduce reliance on any one nation described in the article, “‘Like a divorce’: Mongolia, landlocked between Russia and China, fears new Cold War” (April 6), is risky.

The current situation is like a reunion between Russia and China after their relations hitting bumps in the road for decades. This is good news for Mongolia as otherwise it would be a difficult task for that small nation to meet a military Leviathan to the north and an economic one to the south halfway.

Mergen Mongush, Moscow