Mongolia′s ′rebalance′ towards Russia and China | Asia | DW.DE | 02.09.2014
▻http://www.dw.de/mongolias-rebalance-towards-russia-and-china/a-17892498
Seeking to transform bilateral ties into a comprehensive strategic partnership, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to pay a state visit to Mongolia on September 3. Topping his agenda will be trade and infrastructure. Like neighboring China, Russia is seeking to benefit from Mongolia’s globally significant mineral resources, and it is likely to back this by extending financial support for the development of Mongolia’s infrastructure which, according to analysts, is Ulan Bator’s overriding strategic domestic priority.
Other issues during the visit will revolve around boosting bilateral investment as well as the oft-mooted proposal to build an oil and gas pipeline from Russia to China through Mongolia, say experts.
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The visit comes less than two weeks after his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping embarked on a two-day trip of the resource-rich nation, becoming the first Chinese head of state to visit the landlocked country in more than a decade. Among other things, China and Mongolia signed a host of trade deals and pledged to almost double their annual bilateral trade to 10 billion USD by 2020. China also agreed to give Mongolia access to ports in its north and northeast, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Bon article (c’est la DW…) avec présentation économique et de la politique dite du « troisième voisin ».
L’un des principaux freins est l’absence d’infrastructure et notamment un barreau ferroviaire pour raccorder les mines de l’arc sud.
One crucial obstacle, however, remains Mongolia’s underdeveloped infrastructure connections with its two neighbors. The main rail line runs north-south, connecting Russia and China. There is a second line in eastern Mongolia that connects to the Russian rail network.
However, the mineral-rich southern belt of the country is largely unserved by rail infrastructure, making Mongolia’s mineral exports less competitive. For instance, in the absence of rail connections, coal is currently trucked to loading stations and then to the Chinese border, an expensive and time consuming process, Ashdown explains.