МОНГОЛ УЛС, БНСУ-ЫН СТРАТЕГИЙН ТҮНШЛЭЛ: ГАЗРЫН ХОВОР ЭЛЕМЕНТИЙН САЛБАР ДАХЬ ХАМТЫН АЖИЛЛАГААНЫ ШИНЭ БОЛОМЖ

Mongolia and Korea Strategic Partnership: The New Opportunities of Cooperation in the Field of Rare-Earth Elements

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the ideas of “third neighbor” and “third neighbor” diplomacy have appeared in Mongolia’s foreign policy, and the aforementioned state policy and theoreticalpractical level research have become a new direction. The National Security and Foreign Policy Concepts of Mongolia states that the meaning of the “Third Neighbor” policy is, firstly, developed, secondly, democratic countries and to develop partnership relations and cooperation with countries such as the United States, Japan, the EU, India, the Republic of Korea, and Turkey in all fields. As the President of the Republic of Korea, Kim Dae-Jung, during his first state visit to Mongolia in May 1999, agreed & promoted the relations between the two countries to a new level in the 21st century, to expand and develop mutually complementary cooperation in the long term, and then to develop this relationship into a development partnership. In May 2006, the Ulaanbaatar Joint Statement issued at the summit between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea agreed to develop its activities on the basis of the principle of “Good Neighborhood, Friendship and Cooperative Partnership” was a clear manifestation of Mongolia’s “third neighbor” policy. In August 2011, the President of the Republic of Korea Ie Myung-Pak made a state visit to Mongolia and agreed to expand the relations between the two countries in all fields based on the principle of “Comprehensive Partnership”. On September 10, 2021, the President of Mongolia, Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, and the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-In, held a digital summit and mutually agreed to raise the level of “Comprehensive Partnership” relations between the two countries to the level of “Strategic Partnership”. It was a new phenomenon that never happened in diplomatic practice. A strategic partnership is a long-term sustainable relationship based on common values. Cooperation in the field of rare earth elements is a new way to economically enrich the strategic partnership between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea. The visit of Foreign Minister of the ROK Park Jin to Mongolia in August 2022 and the official visit of Mongolian Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene to the ROK in February 2023 firmly laid the legal basis for cooperation in the field of rare earth elements.