UK-Mongolian relations
A Westminster Hall debate on UK-Mongolian relations will take place on Wednesday 12 July 2023, from 9:30-11:00am. The debate will be led by Daniel Kawczynski MP.
2023 will mark 60 years since Mongolia and the UK established diplomatic relations.
There have been several visits by politicians from both countries in the last few years.
The then Minister for Asia, Amanda Milling MP, spent two days visiting Mongolia in May 2022, stating she had held “productive discussions on a range of bilateral and international issues and look(ed) forward to strengthening our relationship with Mongolia even further”.
The visit was part of the 14th UK-Mongolia round table meeting, which produced a joint communique in which both sides expressed hopes of deepening cooperation in areas such as education, science, climate, energy and the environment.
In January 2023, Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia Mr Amarsaikhan Sainbuya, visited the UK for two days. He met his counterpart, the then Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab MP, as well as the Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP.
In May 2023 the President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, attended the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
In the same month, Mongolia’s Minister of Education and Science, Mr Enkh-Amgalan Luvsantseren, held a meeting with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Mongolia.
In June 2023, Mongolia’s Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Khishgee Nyambaatar paid a visit to the UK, meeting his counterpart Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk MP, to discuss expanding cooperation in this field.
Military tiesThere are also links between the British and Mongolian armed forces.
Mongolia contributed more than 6,000 troops to Afghanistan in support of NATO operations there, and their armed forces served alongside the UK’s including as part of the Kabul Security Force (KSF) which was set up to protect NATO advisers operating in the Afghan capital.
In 2022 the UK sent representatives to Exercise Gobi Wolf, a multinational civil and military training exercise held in Mongolia focusing on disaster response.
Trade relationshipThe Department of Business and Trade Mongolia trade and investment factsheet (PDF), states that the total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Mongolia was £122 million in the four quarters to the end of 2022. This is a decrease of 58.1% or £169 million in current prices from the four quarters to the end of 2021. In 2022, Mongolia was the UK’s joint 141st largest trading partner accounting for less than 0.1% of total UK trade.
The Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, managed by the UK/Australian company Rio Tinto, is reported to be the largest investment by a UK company in Mongolia.
In October 2020, Daniel Kawczynski MP was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Mongolia. He has made three official visits to Mongolia, most recently in April 2023. During his most recent visit Mr Kawczynski discussed increasing air travel between Mongolia and the UK and other cooperation on transport.
The UK and Mongolia do not have a free trade agreement. In May 2022, it was reported that Mongolian ministers expressed a desire to negotiate a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the UK, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2023. This would most likely not be a substantive free trade agreement, however, and could be modelled on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Mongolia that came into force in 2017. There have not been any recent reports on the progress of such a UK-Mongolia agreement.