The Mongolian sandwich

COUNTRIES choose their friends but not their neighbours. Mongolia has just two, China and Russia. Both are huge; and both, at different periods in history, used to dominate it. Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mongolia—once called the 16th Soviet republic—is enjoying the exercise of full sovereignty. And it is expecting a giddy few decades of spectacular growth fuelled by the exploitation of its mineral riches. Yet its biggest market is China, which would happily gobble up as much copper, coal, gold and other minerals as Mongolia can produce. And its only alternative route to other markets is through Russia. Its natural riches should buy it a new freedom of manoeuvre; but many Mongolians worry that they could lead to a new form of dependence, tantamount to commercial subjugation.

That is not the position of the government. Tsogtbaatar Damdin, state secretary in the foreign ministry, insists that Mongolia is “very happy” with its neighbours. His country is “the buffer and the filling that makes this sandwich very juicy”. Yet despite the colourful boosterism, Mongolia also has a “third neighbour” policy, of making friends with the rest of the world. This suggests that, in this instance, two are not enough.