By SHELTON BUMGARNER
FNY Guest Blogger
Funny how a renewed Great Game can turn a geopolitical wallflower into the belle of the ball. Mongolia is yet again in the news, this time for wanting to be the United State’s snuggle bunny given its uncomfortable proximity to the red dragon to its south and the bear just north of it.
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — When Mongolians look north, they see the Russian colossus that controlled them for most of the 20th century. When they look south, they see 1.3 billion Chinese, hereditary adversaries whose booming growth and insatiable appetite for raw materials touch almost everything that happens in the Mongolian economy.
Squeezed between the two giants, Mongolia increasingly has forged relations with “third neighbors,” more distant nations that can offset the influence of Moscow and Beijing. Japan has played the role prominently, becoming Mongolia’s largest aid donor, and so have Germany and South Korea.
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A Mongolian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the possibility of increased U.S. financial aid was in the back of leaders’ minds. Mongolia receives $7.5 million a year in U.S. development projects, about $3 million in wheat donations and some military training. But the main goal, the official said, was to demonstrate Mongolia’s desire to be an ally, in keeping with its third neighbor policy.
Some analysts have suggested that Mongolia’s broad, flat expanses, along with an abandoned Russian air base, could also be valuable as the Pentagon seeks to position itself for the eventuality of conflict with China. But U.S. bases here would be impractical, because Russia or China would have to grant overflight permission for any U.S. planes coming or going. Bases or not, Mongolians understand that Washington sees a strategic advantage in having this country as a sure ally in a neighborhood with an uncertain future.
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