Chapter 6
“Bridging the land of the blue sky with the land of the midnight sun”
While diplomatic ties between Mongolia and the United States formally commenced in January 1987, it would be nearly a decade before those relationships included a strong security dimension. The foundational document for such an engagement was signed in Ulaanbaatar on June 26, 1996. It established a framework for what has become an important and mutually beneficial partnership covering a broad range of areas, including military exchanges and annual joint exercises.
Following the agreement, the Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany, provided several Russian-speaking American officers to serve in the US embassy as defense liaison officers for terms of four to six months. Colonel Mike Byrnes, serving as nonresident military attaché, helped arrange the first of a series of US military flights, bringing relief supplies at a time when Mongolia faced severe economic difficulties. At one point during the mid-1990s, winter relief supplies were air-dropped into Mongolia’s far western province of Bayan Olgii.
Colonel Larry Wortzel, at that time the army attaché in Beijing, became the first US military attaché accredited to Mongolia in 1995, even before the 1996 security assistance agreement between Mongolia and the United States was signed. Major John Baker, one of the early short-term officers from Garmisch, later returned to Mongolia on a full-time basis starting in 1999, becoming the first full-time, resident US military attaché assigned to Ulaanbaatar and making the US embassy one of only three foreign embassies in Ulaanbaatar—along with Russia and China—to have a military attaché in Mongolia.
Major Baker in turn was followed by six other attachés with the rank of lieutenant colonel—Tom Wilhelm, Mark Gillette, Antonio Chow, Matthew Schwab, David Tatman, and Jonathan Lau—each of whom, together with their Mongolian and American staff, played an important part in expanding and deepening the ongoing and productive engagement on security issues now in place between the United States and Mongolia.
Efforts to work together to promote security in Northeast Asia and beyond have taken many forms. Partly, it involves continued dialogue on perceptions aimed at advancing peace and stability in a strategic corner of the world. Mongolia borders Russia and China and is situated in close proximity to Japan and the two Koreas. It is also close to Kazakhstan and shares historic and even cultural ties with the whole of Central Asia, stretching from Kazakhstan to Afghanistan, including Kyrgyzstan, a country that traces its ancient history back to Lake Kyrgyz in Mongolia’s western Uvs province.
From a US perspective, Mongolia’s experience and viewpoint have much to offer to neighbors in Central and Northeast Asia, including lessons learned from both its “decision for democracy” in the early 1990s and its continued shift from a Soviet-style command economy to one shaped in significant part by market forces.
Beyond the ongoing strategic dialogue, the United States has joined with numerous other countries to promote a professional working relationship with the Mongolian military. This interaction helped Mongolia in its rapid emergence as a contributor to UN peacekeeping operations abroad; provided support for Mongolian deployments as part of coalition efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan; and assisted in the development of a world-class training center at Five Hills, 30 miles west of Ulaanbaatar, which deals primarily with international peacekeeping. Other aspects of the US-Mongolian partnership on the security front include continued efforts to better secure Mongolia’s borders and ongoing work with both civilian and military institutions to strengthen emergency preparedness should Mongolia ever face severe earthquakes or other natural disasters.
On May 27, 2012, I joined ambassadors from several other countries—including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Turkey, and China, among others—in marking UN Peacekeeping Day on Sukhbaatar Square in central Ulaanbaatar. Resident military attachés from Russia, China, and the United States participated in the commemoration events, along with hundreds of soldiers and their families, as well as ordinary Mongolian citizens interested in this display of their country’s military prowess.
As it happened, the occasion also marked the tenth anniversary of Mongolian participation in UN peacekeeping missions overseas. During those first ten years, Mongolian troops participated in 14 such missions, providing opportunities for Mongolia to contribute to global security in places as far afield as Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Darfur, and South Sudan. As part of the ceremony, President Elbegdorj bestowed newly minted “Peace in Africa” and “Peace in Afghanistan” medals on some of the many hundreds of Mongolian soldiers, both men and women, who participated in international peacekeeping in far-flung corners of the world over the past decade.
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The rapid transformation of Mongolia’s military from a Soviet-style static army to a deployable, well-trained, mobile international peacekeeping force is a notable achievement. It was only in 2002 that Mongolia’s Great Hural first passed legislation authorizing Mongolian soldiers to serve abroad. Two years later, Major General Gur Ragchaa was posted as the first military advisor to the Mongolian Permanent Mission to the United Nations. His assignment later played an important part in Mongolia’s increasing contribution to UN peacekeeping assignments in Africa and beyond.
In August 2002, the first two Mongolian officers served as observers attached to the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Later that year, Mongolia also sent observers to another UN peacekeeping mission, this time in Western Sahara. Since then, Mongolian soldiers have taken on a variety of international assignments, serving with coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and contributing to UN peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kosovo, Chad, Sudan, and elsewhere.
Although a number of countries have assisted Mongolia in its efforts to forge a new type of military able to deploy as part of UN peacekeeping and other operations overseas, US contributions played an especially useful role in terms of both training and equipment. As part of this continuing security partnership, the United States has made important contributions to the growth and development of the Five Hills Training Center, refurbishing buildings, providing equipment, facilitating training programs, and assisting in the emergence of Five Hills as the only peacekeeping training center of its kind in all of Northeast Asia. By the end of 2011, US financial contributions toward strengthening Five Hills had exceeded $5.7 million.
Mongolia is already well on its way toward achieving its long-term objective of developing and putting into place a world-class, 3,000-person peacekeeping force. This is an ambitious but achievable goal for an army numbering only 12,000. While consisting mainly of highly mobile infantry, this new Mongolian peacekeeping brigade will ultimately also include military police, engineers, and medical personnel.
Mongolia first deployed troops to Iraq in August 2003. Over time, it provided more than 900 military personnel, who served in ten consecutive rotations with the Polish-led Multinational Division that included soldiers from 21 other countries.
The most dramatic event in Mongolia’s Iraq deployment occurred in the second rotation, when a suicide bomber driving a truck laden with explosives attempted to drive into the Polish camp at Hilla. Charged with protecting the perimeter, the Mongolian security force moved into action immediately with deadly accuracy, killing the terrorist driving the truck before he had time to explode his truck inside the camp. Following this attack, the two soldiers most directly involved—Sergeant Azzaya and Sergeant Samuu-Yondon—received combat medals and were recognized as “Mongolian heroes,” both in Poland and in Mongolia.
A few months later, in October 2003, the first Mongolian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, their numbers expanding significantly as military operations in Iraq began to wind down. By the end of 2010, approximately 200 Mongolian soldiers were serving in Afghanistan, some staffing guard towers at Camp Eggers in Kabul, others training soldiers of the Afghan national army near Kabul in artillery systems and helicopter maintenance. Still others worked with Belgian soldiers at Kabul airport and with German troops in Faizabad in northern Afghanistan. Early in 2011, President Elbegdorj announced at the NATO summit conference in Madrid that Mongolia intended to double its Afghan deployment to 400, proportionately one of the most significant contributions made by any country to the Afghan campaign.
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In March 2011, I joined embassy defense attaché Lt. Colonel Lau to spend several days with the Mongolian soldiers serving in Afghanistan. It was a moving and inspiring encounter, starting with the initial parade and martial arts demonstration that concluded with pinning the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) medals, with blue and white ribbons, on each member of the contingent as they neared the end of their rotation.
We carried with us Mongolian-language newspapers and magazines, messages from Mongolian school children, brick tea and taiga tea from Lake Hovsgol—and fresh aaruul (cheese) from the Mongolian countryside. Our admiration and respect for the Mongolian troops serving far from home only increased when we visited their living quarters and saw snapshots of loved ones back in Mongolia and pictures of horses, gers, and the never-ending steppe posted on the walls of their recreation center, built within the shadow of the snow-covered Hindu Kush.
Meeting for a bowl of airag in the ceremonial ger that Mongolian soldiers had constructed at Camp Eggers, I was reminded that it was nearly 800 years ago that Mongolian soldiers had last watered their horses in the Kabul River. Although Genghis Khan’s favorite grandson was killed while fighting at Bamiyan, he considered Afghanistan as his “favorite” part of the world after Mongolia. Given the weather, climate, historic landscapes, and wide open spaces, it was not hard to see why.
Even today, Afghanistan’s Hazara minority who live in the central highlands of the country view themselves as the descendants of Genghis Khan’s soldiers, a feeling reinforced by the fact that “Hazara” in Farsi (as well as in Urdu and several other South and Central Asian languages) means thousand, the size of a standard detachment within the army of Genghis Khan. Not surprisingly, Mongolian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan felt a special affinity with the country’s Hazara population from the very beginning. In fact, as a result of the Afghan deployment, the Mongolian government now sponsors several scholarships for Hazara students from Afghanistan to study in Ulaanbaatar, and at least one private Mongolian university offers additional scholarships to Hazara students.
At one point during my visit to Kabul in March 2011, I asked a Mongolian soldier about his encounters with the Afghan Hazara population during his deployment in Afghanistan. “Oh yes, we have met several times,” he replied. “One of them even asked of us—‘Why did you ever leave us behind?’”
In April 2012, the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) made its own contribution toward stabilizing Afghanistan, providing a two-week training course for young Afghan diplomats to learn from the Mongolian experience. Twelve Afghan diplomats participated in a series of field trips and classroom exercises, each aimed at introducing them to Mongolia and its economy, society, and role in the world.
Among other things, the MFAT training course introduced the Afghan diplomats to Mongolia’s “third neighbor” foreign policy. This included both the challenges and opportunities associated with being surrounded by larger and more powerful neighbors, along with an interest in seeking “balance,” in part by also reaching out to other countries as well as the UN, regional groups, and other multilateral organizations. There were also discussions about the problems faced by landlocked countries and the challenges experienced in managing mineral-rich economies. According to one of the Afghan diplomats who attended the training course in Ulaanbaatar, “We came to understand that there is much more to Mongolia than what we were taught in our history books back in Afghanistan.”
Beyond Afghanistan, Mongolian soldiers have also distinguished themselves in other UN and NATO peacekeeping assignments over the last decade, winning growing recognition and respect for Mongolia’s professional military. For example, about 70 Mongolian military personnel served in the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR), working largely with the French battalion. Hundreds of Mongolian soldiers have also been assigned to Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital, to provide security for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Over the past decade, Mongolian military observers have gained valuable additional experience in UN peacekeeping operations through their work in the Congo, Western Sahara, Sudan, and Ethiopia. In addition, Mongolian units have served in larger numbers as UN peacekeepers in Chad. More recently, in December 2010, several dozen Mongolian medical personnel, many of them women, were deployed in nearby Darfur, establishing a military hospital using medical equipment donated by the US Air Force valued at more than $4.2 million. In early 2012, the first members of a Mongolian contingent that eventually numbered 850 began deploying under the UN flag in the world’s newest country, South Sudan.
Perhaps the most important element in Mongolia’s emergence as a peacekeeping nation is the international character of its global engagement. In this regard, US assistance for training and in providing nonlethal equipment has helped complement assistance offered by other nations, including Mongolia’s immediate neighbors. For example, Russia provided most of the heavy equipment used by the Mongolian contingent in Chad, including armored troop carriers. Similarly, China assisted Mongolia by funding construction of a “rest and recuperation” center in the hills outside Ulaanbaatar, set aside for use by Mongolian soldiers and their families after the rigors of their peacekeeping assignments abroad.
At a multilateral level, Mongolia’s contributions have not gone unnoticed, garnering for both Mongolia and its military a well-deserved reputation for dedication, commitment, and professionalism. As a result of this service overseas, it is not uncommon to meet Mongolian soldiers or border guards in even remote parts of the country who are well traveled, having been deployed in various peacekeeping operations in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.
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American and Mongolian participation in two annual military exercises have helped deepen their security partnership still further. One, Khaan Quest, focused on international peacekeeping and typically occurs in the summer. The other, Gobi Wolf, scheduled in the spring, involves domestic disaster preparedness. Less regularly scheduled exercises have occasionally been centered on Mongolia.
The first joint Khaan Quest exercise was held in Mongolia in May 2003 as a bilateral exercise between the US Marine Corps and the Mongolian armed forces. Subsequent Khaan Quest exercises have been held on an annual basis. Beginning in 2006, Khaan Quest became a multinational exercise, involving not only US and Mongolian soldiers but also those of many other countries, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, India, Fiji, Cambodia, Thailand, Tonga, Nepal, and others. The Khaan Quest exercise held at Five Hills outside Ulaanbaatar in August 2011, involved many hundreds of soldiers representing 19 different countries.
Often Khaan Quest exercises have also benefitted local civilian populations, especially regarding various outreach programs. Over the years these programs have brought medical care to thousands of Mongolian patients in remote, underserved locations. In 2010, for example, US doctors, nurses, and medical staff teamed up with their Mongolian military counterparts to provide optometry, dentistry, neurology, obstetrics-gynecology, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, and pharmacy services to the population of several districts in Mongolia’s Omnogobi province. Additionally, veterinary support was provided to local herders. Similarly, engineering cooperation has brought tangible benefits to local communities, as illustrated by the 2010 Khaan Quest exercises, when US soldiers and their Mongolian counterparts built a public bathhouse in one of the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar.
Outreach programs were also arranged as part of the Khaan Quest exercise in August 2011, resulting in more than 5,000 medical consultations in ger districts in the western part of Ulaanbaatar near the airport. At the same time, military engineers from the United States, India, and Mongolia worked together to enlarge and improve a community health unit in the same area.
That same summer, the US Air Force’s annual “Pacific Angel” humanitarian exercise dealt specifically with Mongolia. An international effort involving soldiers from several countries, the medical outreach this time centered on Henti province, east of Ulaanbaatar and regarded as the historical home of Genghis Khan. As in Khaan Quest, military doctors associated with Pacific Angel treated thousands of patients, while a contingent of soldiers worked to refurbish a rural health center.
The annual Gobi Wolf exercise was based upon a 2008 workshop that reviewed the Mongolian government’s responses to a simulated energy sector failure. Building on the success of this workshop, the first Gobi Wolf exercise was launched in March 2009 with support from the Hawaii-based Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance.
During the first year (2009), scenario planning revolved around a train derailment near Ulaanbaatar involving toxic chemicals. Subsequent Gobi Wolf exercises have addressed a possible mining disaster (2010) and a deadly earthquake (2011), potentially catastrophic events that require advance detailed planning to ensure an effective response, not only from the Mongolian military but also from civilian entities such as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Other US programs provide training opportunities for growing numbers of Mongolian soldiers and civilians engaged in security issues. Some training is tactical or operational in nature, but much of it is strategic. Such training includes Mongolian participation in workshops, seminars, and academic programs sponsored by major American military institutions such as the Army War College, the Army and Air Force Command and General Staff College, the National Defense Intelligence College, the National Defense University, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and the Naval Post Graduate School. Many dozens of Mongolians have also participated in programs provided by the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, and some have attended programs offered at the George C. Marshall Center in Germany.
Interaction with the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies is especially intensive. By 2011 the number of Mongolians participating in seminars, workshops, and other programs at the Center over the year passed the 150 mark. Participants represent many disciplines and areas of interest, including defense attachés and a large number of officials, both military and civilian, from the parliament, police, customs, internal troops, border forces, the Ministry of Defense, Mongolia’s National Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the National Emergency Management Agency, the National Defense University, and the Institute of Strategic Studies.
Over the years, the alumni list from these institutions has reflected the active participation of a large number of distinguished Mongolians, including not only ministers, members of parliament, and ambassadors but also President Elbegdorj. Indeed, officials at the Center applaud Mongolia for the “diverse representation” of its participants—both men and women have attended, as well as officials representing the full spectrum of government, from parliament to many ministries.
The US-supported International Military Education and Training (IMET) program plays a significant part in strengthening Mongolian military capabilities and has provided much of the funding for training Mongolians on security-related topics. Funds are provided entirely on a grant basis. Specific programs deal with strengthening US-Mongolian military ties and promoting interoperability, partly by providing English language and other training. Between 1992 and 2011, the total IMET funding for Mongolia reached $13 million.
In addition, US-Mongolian co-operation is advanced through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. Under this initiative, the United States funds on a grant basis a range of nonlethal military equipment requested by Mongolia, including uniforms, night vision equipment, and vehicles. Recently, Mongolia expressed interest in acquiring C-130 aircraft built in the United States in order to establish a “lift capacity,” useful not only to deploy peacekeepers in the various international assignments but also to respond quickly, deal with potential natural disasters, and provide the prompt air response required in a country as large as Mongolia.
Finally, between 2002 and 2004 Mongolia received $2 million from the Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities program. Not long afterwards, it became a partner in a similar US-funded Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), receiving approximately $10 million in additional equipment. This support reflects appreciation for Mongolia’s commendable record of service on numerous peacekeeping missions around the world as well as a desire to ensure that the military is well prepared for possible future deployments abroad.
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While many Mongolian officers have studied in the United States in recent years, travel and training opportunities move in both directions. As a result, American military personnel have had the opportunity to visit, teach, train, and work in Mongolia. A unique program launched in 2005 and concluded in fall 2010 brought to Mongolia some 117 marines, almost all noncommissioned officers (NCOs), on a regular basis, temporarily embedding them for months at a time with Mongolian units training for overseas deployments.
The program gave Mongolian NCOs an opportunity to strengthen their professional skills and their ability to operate as leaders of small units in order to make them more effective as they prepare for their next overseas deployment. Marines who participated in this program also appreciated the chance to celebrate Mongolian festivals, hunt in the Mongolian countryside, and spend time with Mongolian families, strengthening people-to-people ties while also improving their military skills.
Starting in the early 2000s, American servicemen and women from the army, air force, and marines have also provided specialized subject-matter training in a number of areas, ranging from medical services to military police to combat engineering and explosive ordinance demolition.
One program even forged a co-operative relationship between various Mongolian army bands and their American counterparts. Perhaps the highlight so far of this particular program occurred in July 2010, when the US Marine Band based in Honolulu joined with their Mongolian counterparts for a well-received concert on Sukhbaatar Square that featured not only a marching band but also a joint jazz concert that concluded with Louis Armstrong’s widely popular classic “What a Wonderful World.”
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The partnership launched in September 2003 between the Alaska National Guard and the Mongolian military represents one of the more interesting aspects of the security ties that have developed between the United States and Mongolia over the last decade. While the program strengthened military co-operation, it also forged useful partnerships in other areas, including health, disaster preparedness, and education. As the motto for this particular partnership suggests, the initiative plays an especially useful role in “bridging the land of the blue sky with the land of the midnight sun.” And, as the program mission statement notes, the goal is to “link the Alaska National Guard with Mongolia for the purpose of fostering mutual interests and establishing relationships across all levels of society.”
Part of an ongoing effort on the part of the United States is to link National Guard units of specific American states with more than 50 different countries, the “twinning” of the Alaska National Guard with Mongolian counterparts proved an inspired choice. Physically, Alaska and Mongolia are almost exactly the same size. They also share a number of other features, including a similar climate, low population density, and a mineral-rich economy. Going further back, linguists point to similarities between Mongolian and various native Alaskan languages that represent a lingering historical memory of the time when people from Central Asia crossed the then-existing “land bridge” linking the two continents and began to populate North America.
The military aspects of the Alaska National Guard partnership are perhaps best demonstrated in Iraq and Afghanistan, where American soldiers have shared danger with their Mongolian counterparts as comrades in arms in a war zone. For five years starting in April 2004, officers from Alaska “embedded” with Mongolian soldiers on duty in Iraq. This was followed by a similar arrangement in Afghanistan starting in September 2009. At Camp Eggers in Kabul, as in Iraq, Alaskan soldiers deploy with Mongolian soldiers, providing an important liaison and training function while also deepening understanding and respect between soldiers from the two countries.
Soldiers from the Alaska National Guard also participate in the annual Khaan Quest and Gobi Wolf exercises in Mongolia. In both instances, the participation of Alaskan military officers and civilian officials provides additional expertise while also enriching the security partnership.
As a result of the National Guard connection, Alaska twice hosted the US-Mongolia Defense Bilateral Consultation Council and contributed to civilian-focused activities such as annual medical readiness training exercises. Moreover, the connection helped the Mongolian military develop new approaches to family support, ensuring that the families of Mongolian soldiers deployed abroad also receive support back home.
Not surprisingly, the Alaska-Mongolia partnership through the Alaska National Guard quickly moved beyond military ties to strengthen relations in other areas. One outcome has been the development of a sister-city relationship between Fairbanks and Erdenet, which in turn has led to two full scholarships for students from Orkhon province to study mining engineering at the University of Alaska.
Former Ambassador Pamela Slutz, who helped launch the program, observed:
One of the major advantages of the sister-city partnership was—and is—that it opens up educational opportunities for Mongolians: under Alaska state law, citizens of a town that has a formal sister-city partnership are entitled to study at the University of Alaska at reduced, in-state tuition rates. And Alaska has much to offer in terms of technical expertise and experience in mining under extreme climate and environmentally fragile conditions.
As a result of this educational policy, more than 20 Mongolian students from Erdenet City and Orkhon province are now receiving their higher education at the University of Alaska in either Fairbanks or Anchorage. Furthermore, there is a developing relationship between the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. During the summer of 2011, those ties led to the establishment of a student exchange program in mining and engineering that will provide Mongolian students with still more opportunities to study in Alaska during the years ahead.
The partnership forged through the Alaska National Guard has also had other benefits. To highlight only a few, the Alaska-Mongolia partnership has so far provided opportunities for Mongolian health officials to visit Alaska, for Mongolian financial specialists to study the Alaska Permanent Fund as a potential investment mode, and for Mongolian law enforcement officials to meet with Alaska state troopers and Anchorage police officers. In recognition of the usefulness of the partnership, President Enkhbayar visited Alaska in October 2007.
Reflecting on partnership developed over the last several years, Craig Campbell, former lieutenant governor of Alaska and former adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, notes that “only the National Guard” could be the catalyst for the broad range of military and civilian programs that have been launched in the last few years. According to General Campbell:
It can’t be done by the active duty military. It can’t be done solely by the civilian community. The reason is, the National Guard brings significant civilian expertise. We’re citizen-soldiers. The majority of us have civilian jobs. We have that experience and skills from doctors to engineers to carpenters. We’re the only ones that have military and civilian combined in one package.
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Finally, two notable US-sponsored programs assist in Mongolia’s efforts to promote security by protecting its long borders, one in the area of communications and the other in monitoring the possible movement of nuclear materials across international frontiers.
The first program, known as the Border Forces Communications Project, was launched in 2000 and formally concluded exactly one decade later, in March 2010. During those ten years, the United States provided more than $9.2 million in grant funding to equip Mongolian border forces with Harris radios in Uvs province and elsewhere. The initiative, involving the provision of many small solar-powered systems, also provided direct contact between remote Mongolian border forces patrolling in the far northwest of the country and headquarters in Ulaanbaatar. In more recent years, the Harris radios have also ensured that Mongolian soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan could communicate directly with their headquarters back in Ulaanbaatar.
Without doubt, the opportunity to discuss this communications initiative and see it working in the field provided some of the most memorable moments of my ambassadorship in Mongolia. At different times, it was possible to meet with Mongolian border forces in Uvs in the far west and Dornod and Sukhbaatar in the far east. In each case, it was like going back in time, to when border patrols were conducted on horseback by small units provisioned, at best, on a monthly basis. Otherwise, soldiers were on their own, relying on their own herds of sheep for food. Wives and small children sometimes accompanied officers, living in nearby gers dozens of miles from the nearest hamlet. Under existing border protocols, the Mongolian border forces occasionally met and communicated with their Russian and Chinese counterparts on the other side of the frontier, sometimes to sort out issues involving local cattle rustlers. Such trips were a vivid reminder of the vastness of Mongolia as well as the challenges it faces in protecting its remote and far-flung frontiers.
The second program—part of the Second Line of Defense Radiation Portal Monitoring Program, sponsored by the US Department of Energy and involving a number of countries in Central Asia—was launched following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Mongolia in Washington, D.C., on October 23, 2007.
From the beginning, the State Specialized Inspection Agency (now the General Agency for State Inspection) played a leading role on the Mongolian side. After its creation, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) assumed policy authority, with the Inspection Agency a lead implementer along with the Mongolian border guards and Customs General Administration. From the start, the intent has been to strengthen Mongolia’s efforts to deter, detect, and interdict illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radiological materials.
By 2011, the United States had provided some $20 million in equipment and training to Mongolia through the Department of Energy as part of this broader international effort to detect and monitor potential shipments of nuclear materials. Initially, portals were installed and became operational in November 2008 at several locations, including Ulaanbaatar, Sukhbaatar, Altanbulag, and Zamiin-Uud. Several additional sites have since come on line in northern and western Mongolia. Future portal installations are planned at additional sites on Mongolia’s southern and eastern borders.
In these and other ways, the United States has supported Mongolia’s own ongoing efforts to affirm its independence, preserve its sovereignty, and protect its international frontiers.