Emmanuel Macron upon his arrival at Ulaanbaatar Airport, Mongolia, May 21, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP-PH
Emmanuel Macron arrived in Mongolia on Sunday 21 May for a brief but symbolic visit. It was the first visit by a French president to this landlocked country between China and Russia, which has attracted growing interest from Westerners. The French leader landed in the capital Ulaanbaatar just after 6:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. Paris time) after attending the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima since Friday.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, France has multiplied its efforts to speak to countries that have not unequivocally condemned the war being waged by Moscow. The visit to Mongolia is related to this. With this trip, Paris also aims to strengthen bilateral relations in the areas of ecological change, agriculture, the agri-food sector and civil security.
In Ulaanbaatar, where he will only spend the evening, Mr Macron is to meet President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh and have dinner with him afterwards, the Elysee said. He must also visit the Genghis Khan Museum, named after the great Mongolian conqueror of the 13th century. The institution will lend part of its collection to the Historical Museum of Nantes in western France for an exhibition planned for October. The head of state will also meet with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene. At the end of the evening he will leave for Paris.
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A uranium mining project
The French Presidency mentioned a “very important issue” at “a geostrategic level” that is part of Paris’ desire to “relax the constraint on Russia’s neighbors and allow them to choose their options”. Mongolia is also part of the “strategy of diversifying European supplies to ensure our energy sovereignty,” adds the Elysée. The French nuclear company Orano is working on a uranium mine project on Mongolian territory, possibly one of the largest in the world.
According to Elysée, the other challenge of the visit is to encourage foreign investment in Mongolia in the fight against global warming, to which the country, which belongs to the semi-desert and is exposed to extreme temperatures, is particularly vulnerable. At the bilateral level, Paris sees “very significant opportunities for cooperation” since Mongolia, whose electricity generation is 90% dependent on coal, has a “problem” with the “decarbonization of its economy”.
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Mongolia has already become the subject of growing interest from the United States in recent years as part of its strategy to thwart Beijing’s rise to power. Currently, 86% of all Mongolia’s exports of goods together go to China. Half of these Chinese purchases are coal.