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EMBASSY/CONSULATE ADDRESSES

Diplomatic Representation in US:
Ambassador: Bold RAVDAN
Embassy: 2833 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
Telephone: [1] (202) 333-7117
FAX: [1] (202) 298-9227

Consulate(s) General:
New York
6 E. 77th St
New York, NY 10021

US Diplomatic Representation:
Ambassador: Jonathan S. Addleton
Embassy: Micro Region 11, Big Ring Road, C.P.O. 1021, Ulaanbaatar 13
Mailing Address: PSC 461, Box 300, FPO AP 96521-0002
Telephone: [976] (11) 329095
Fax: [976] (11) 320776

Embassy and Consulate Web Sites for Mongolia

Embassy of Mongolia in Washington, USA
Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the United Nations in New York


FOREIGN RELATIONS

In the wake of the international socialist economic system's collapse and the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, Mongolians began to pursue an independent and nonaligned foreign policy. Mongolia is landlocked between Russia and China and seeks cordial relations with both nations. At the same time, Mongolia has sought to advance its regional and global relations. Ties with Japan and South Korea are particularly strong. Japan has historically been the largest bilateral aid donor to Mongolia, although the ongoing $285 million U.S.-Mongolia Millennium Challenge Compact will put the United States in the top spot until it sunsets in 2013. Mongolia has also made efforts to steadily boost ties with European countries. China is the largest foreign investor in Mongolia.

As part of its aim to establish a more balanced nonaligned foreign policy, Mongolia has sought to take a more active role in the United Nations and other international organizations, and has pursued a more active role in Asian and northeast Asian affairs. The country is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. Mongolia is currently seeking to join the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). It is an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), but has stated it does not intend to seek membership. Mongolia will begin its 2-year chairmanship of the Community of Democracies beginning in July 2011. The country also serves on the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Mongolia, which has diplomatic relations with both North and South Korea, has also sought to play a supporting role in the Six-Party talks. In late 2007, it hosted a closed meeting between two Six-Party members, North Korea and Japan. Mongolia has also offered to help organize and to host a northeast Asian regional security mechanism. The country is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP) and hosted the group's planning meeting in Ulaanbaatar on July 1, 2008. In January 2011, Mongolia hosted parliamentary delegates from 19 countries for the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF). Mongolia also hosted a regional workshop of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization in March 2010 and became the Chair of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in September 2010.

Mongolian relations with China began to improve in the mid-1980s when consular agreements were reached and cross-border trade contacts expanded. In May 1990, a Mongolian head of state visited China for the first time in 28 years. The cornerstone of the Mongolian-Chinese relationship is a 1994 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, which codifies mutual respect for the independence and territorial integrity of both sides. China has objected strongly to visits since 1990 of the Dalai Lama; during the 2002 visit, China briefly disrupted railroad links for "technical" reasons. There are regular high-level visits and expanding trade ties. President Hu Jintao visited Mongolia in 2003 (his first international visit as China's President). President Bagabandi visited China in 2004, President Enkhbayar visited in 2008, and Prime Minister Bayar met Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing in April 2009. Premier Wen visited Ulaanbaatar in June 2010 to open a new cultural center, announce new educational scholarships for Mongolians, and discuss cooperation on infrastructure projects.

After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, Mongolia developed relations with the new independent states. Links with Russia and other republics were essential to contribute to stabilization of the Mongolian economy. In 1991, Mongolia and Russia concluded both a Joint Declaration of Cooperation and a bilateral trade agreement. This was followed by a 1993 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation establishing a new basis of equality in the relationship. Mongolian President Bagabandi visited Moscow in 1999, and Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia in 2000 in order to sign the 25-point Ulaanbaatar Declaration, reaffirming Mongol-Russian friendship and cooperation on numerous economic and political issues. In December 2003, Mongolia believed it had settled the Soviet-era debt it owed to Russia with a negotiated payment of $250 million. In 2009 the Russian Government stated that hundreds of millions of dollars in debt remained unpaid, but the debt was declared settled in December 2010 when Prime Minister Batbold visited Russia and met with Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev. During the visit, the leaders announced the establishment of a joint venture in Dornod Province to mine uranium. The Mongolian and Russian Governments continue to jointly own the railroad and the large Erdenet copper mine. Prime Minister Putin visited Ulaanbaatar 2 weeks prior to the Mongolian presidential election in May 2009, and President Medvedev visited Mongolia in August 2009 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (aka Battle of Nomonhan), a combined Soviet-Mongolian victory over Imperial Japan, ultimately leading the Japanese Army to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and divert its forces into Southeast Asia. After nearly 2 decades of inactivity, Russia is renewing military ties with the Mongolian armed forces through military education and training exchange programs, as well as joint exercises focused on the repair of Mongolia’s Soviet-built equipment. As part of the December 2010 visit, Russia announced it would increase the number of training slots available to Mongolian military officers.

U.S.-MONGOLIAN RELATIONS
The U.S. Government recognized Mongolia in January 1987 and established its first embassy in Ulaanbaatar in June 1988. It formally opened in September 1988. The first U.S. ambassador to Mongolia, Richard L. Williams, was not a resident there. Joseph E. Lake, the first resident ambassador, arrived in July 1990. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III visited Mongolia in August 1990, and again in July 1991. Mongolia accredited its first ambassador to the United States in March 1989. Secretary of State Madeline Albright visited Mongolia in May 1998, and Prime Minister Enkhbayar visited Washington in November 2001. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage visited Mongolia in January 2004, and President Bagabandi came to Washington for a meeting with President George W. Bush in July 2004. President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Mongolia in November 2005. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited in October 2005 and Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert visited Mongolia in August 2005. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns led a presidential delegation in July 2006 in conjunction with Mongolia's celebration of its 800th anniversary. President Enkhbayar visited the White House in October 2007 and the two Presidents signed the Millennium Challenge Compact for Mongolia (see below). House Minority Leader John Boehner visited Mongolia in August 2009.

The United States has sought to assist Mongolia's movement toward democracy and market-oriented reform and to expand relations with Mongolia primarily in the cultural and economic fields. In 1989 and 1990, a cultural accord, Peace Corps accord, consular convention, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) agreement were signed. A trade agreement was signed in January 1991 and a bilateral investment treaty in 1994. Mongolia was granted permanent normal trade relations (NTR) status and generalized system of preferences (GSP) eligibility in June 1999. In July 2004, the U.S. signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with Mongolia to promote economic reform and more foreign investment. In July 2007, six members of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Mongolia to inaugurate an exchange program between lawmakers of the two countries. The return visit came in August 2007, with five members of the Mongolian parliament traveling to the U.S. Similar exchanges of lawmakers and staff members have continued. The House Democracy Partnership (HDP), under which members of the U.S. Congress and staff directly assist their parliamentary counterparts in newly democratic countries, is an increasingly prominent means of engagement. In total, 25 Mongolian members of parliament have visited Washington and Macedonia on this program. Several congressional delegations have also traveled to Ulaanbaatar, including that led by House Minority Leader John Boehner in August 2009. Six staffers from the Mongolian parliament also visited Washington during this time. Members of parliament involved have risen in prominence and spearheaded reforms.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Mongolia provides targeted bilateral development assistance in two strategic program areas: economic growth and good governance. These activities are conducted with an eye toward assisting Mongolia in managing the expected windfall and the accompanying challenges of its burgeoning mining sector. Between 1991 and 2011, USAID grant assistance to Mongolia totaled $214 million. The FY 2010 economic growth program budget of $6.4 million targets the legal and regulatory environment in the energy, trade, and business sectors to develop a business-enabling environment, strengthen Mongolia’s banks and financial markets, facilitate trade, and encourage private sector-led growth. The program also emphasizes building a national consensus among stakeholders on the future of the mining sector. A $1.5 million clean energy earmark added in FY 2010 targets reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Mongolia. USAID good governance programming continues to focus on anti-corruption activities that include assistance to the independent agency monitoring corruption, building citizen awareness of corruption issues, and improving judicial processes of commercial adjudication. Governance programming in FY 2010 was $1 million.

In August 2009, the United States approved a total of $13 million of FY 2009 supplemental funds to Mongolia to mitigate the negative effects of the global financial crisis. USAID signed a $10 million cash transfer for budget support to the Government of Mongolia, which helped the government meet its deficit reduction targets and ensured essential social safety net transfers to those hardest hit by the economic crisis. Supplemental funds provided $2 million in technical assistance through the Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) directly to Mongolia's Central Bank to address essential banking and financial sector reforms. Development Credit Authority ($1 million) guarantees are used to mobilize and leverage financing to maintain and generate employment across targeted sectors by promoting lower collateral requirements and longer-term loans.

The second $2 million tranche of FY 2009 global financial crisis supplemental funding was authorized in May 2010. Two-thirds of the funds were granted to social safety net projects to promote the social and economic inclusion of marginal groups to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis and the 2010 dzud (severe weather). The remaining funds were provided to the OTA to continue technical assistance to the country’s financial sector.

In addition to regular bilateral and supplemental funding, USAID central funds aim to foster an inclusive environment for local persons with disabilities, to improve responsiveness and inclusiveness of local and national governments through national consensus building, to conserve biodiversity and secure livelihoods of the rural poor, and to promote economic development through cooperative approaches.

In most years since 1993, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided food aid to Mongolia under the Food for Progress and 416(b) programs. The monetized proceeds of the food aid ($5 million in 2008) are used to support programs bolstering entrepreneurship, herder livelihood diversification, and better veterinary services. The U.S. Embassy supports a new request from the Government of Mongolia for USDA’s Food for Progress assistance.

The United States has also supported defense reform and an increased capacity by Mongolia's armed forces to participate in international peacekeeping operations. Beginning in 2003, Mongolia contributed troops to coalition operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, gaining experience that later enabled it to deploy armed peacekeepers to both UN and NATO peacekeeping missions. While early Afghanistan deployments centered on the provision of artillery mobile training teams, current deployments are far more extensive. Mongolia now has some 200 soldiers in Afghanistan in support of both Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), including fixed-site security missions at Camp Eggers and in support of Germany's ISAF contingent in Feyzabad, as well as 25 artillery trainers and six helicopter trainers. At the recent NATO conference in Lisbon, the President of Mongolia stated his intent to double Mongolia’s contributions in Afghanistan to 400.

In addition to deployments in support of coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Mongolia has deployed over 3,000 of its personnel on UN peacekeeping missions in Chad, Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Georgia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Western Sahara. Late 2010 brought Mongolia’s first-ever deployment of a UN Level II hospital to Darfur.

The Peace Corps has approximately 130 volunteers in Mongolia. At the request of the Government of Mongolia, they are engaged primarily in English teaching and teacher training activities. Other program areas include public health, small-business development, and youth development. In 2005 and 2006 Mongolian Government officials, including then-President Enkhbayar and then-Prime Minister Elbegdorj, requested significant increases in the number of volunteers (“PCVs”) serving in country. On August 20, 2010, the largest group of PCVs to serve in Mongolia, numbering 72, took the oath of service. This is the 21st PCV group to serve in Mongolia. PCVs are placed in 20 of the 21 aimags in Mongolia.

Mongolia was one of the first countries eligible for the new Millennium Challenge Account initiative that began in 2004, administered by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). MCC's program focuses on providing grant support to countries that perform above the median in their income peer group on key indicators in three broad policy categories: ruling justly, investing in people, and encouraging economic freedom. MCC-eligible countries propose projects that will significantly reduce poverty in their countries through stimulating economic growth. On October 22, 2007, at a White House signing ceremony, President Bush and President Enkhbayar signed a Millennium Challenge Compact for Mongolia that called for $285 million to be spent on four projects over a 5-year period beginning in September 2008. The Compact supports efforts to broaden and deepen economic development in Mongolia. The original focus of the Compact was on four key areas: rail modernization, property rights, vocational education, and health. In April 2009, the Government of Mongolia requested the termination of the rail modernization project, citing circumstances beyond its control due to the lack of cooperation of the 50% Russian owners of the Mongolian railway. The government proposed areas for reallocation of the rail project funds, and additional funding for the other three projects as well as a new road/bridge construction project and an energy and environment project were approved by the MCC board in late 2009 and finalized in a formal Amendment to the Compact in January 2010, which the Mongolian parliament ratified in February 2010. Implementing MCC projects in Mongolia is enabling key institutions and infrastructure to better support the country's burgeoning urbanized, market-based economy and help Mongolians to increase their incomes by becoming healthier and better trained, by using their land assets more productively, and by increasing their capacity to trade with the world.

Principal U.S. Embassy Official
Ambassador--Jonathan S. Addleton

The U.S. Embassy is located in Micro District 11, Big Ring Road, Ulaanbaatar; tel. [976] (1) 329-095 or 329-606, fax 320-776. Consular and commercial information are available at the embassy's web site: http://mongolia.usembassy.gov.


TRAVEL ADVISORIES

To obtain the latest Travel Advisory Information for Mongolia check the U.S. State Department Consular Information Sheet.


TRAVEL TIPS

Driving TBA
Currency (MNT) Togrog/Tugrik
Electrical 230 Volts
Telephones Country Code 976



Time: GMT + 8 (Bayan Ulgii, Uvs & Khovd Aimags in western Mongolia GMT + 7).

Electricity: 220 volts AC, 50Hz.

Telephone: An Asiasat Earth station has provided international telecommunications with Mongolia since 1994. Country code: 976. Area codes: Ulaanbaatar: 11, Darkhan: 01-372, Erdenet: 01-352, Khovd: 01-432. International calls can be made from telephone exchanges in Ulaanbaatar.

Climate: A dry climate with short, mild summers and long, severe winters (October to April). Some rain falls during summer and there is snow during winter.

Clothing: Mediumweights are worn during summer, with very warm heavyweights advised for winter.

Food & Drink: Meat is the basis of the diet, primarily beef and mutton. The local cooking is quite distinctive. Traditional meals generally consist of boiled mutton with lots of fat and flour with either rice or dairy products. One local speciality is Boodog; this is the whole carcass of a goat roasted from the inside – the entrails and bones are taken out through the throat, the carcass is filled with burning hot stones and the neck tied tightly, and thus the goat is cooked from the inside to the outside. Fish is also beginning to be widely available.
Mongolian tea (suutei tsai), meaning salty tea with milk, is very popular. Mongolian vodka is excellent, as is the beer (although it is expensive). Hot and cold beverages are not normally included in meals and many restaurants will add on a 13 per cent sales tax.

Shopping: In Ulaanbaatar, there are a few duty-free shops and restaurants where convertible currencies are accepted. In all other shops, local currency must be used. The best buys include pictures, cashmere garments, camel-wool blankets, national costumes, boots, jewellery, carpets, books and handicrafts. The notorious black market on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar is a large, crowded flea market which sells a huge variety of items. Suitable for the adventurous traveller, it is patronised mainly by local people. Pickpockets can be a problem.

Shopping hours: Mon-Sun 1000-1800 as a general guide although times and days vary considerably.

Currency: Tugrug (Tg). Notes are in denominations of Tg10,000, 5000, 1000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 3 and 1. Coins are in denominations of Tg200, 100, 50 and 20.

Credit & debit cards: Accepted by main commercial banks, large hotels and a few shops and restaurants in Ulaanbaatar. Credit card cash advances can be obtained at the Trade and Development Bank.

Travellers cheques: American Express Travellers Cheques are most widely accepted although Thomas Cook are accepted by the Trade and Development Bank. To avoid additional exchange rate charges, travellers are advised to take travellers cheques in US Dollars. Travellers cheques can be difficult to exchange outside the capital.

Banking hours: Mon-Fri 0930-1230 and 1400-1500.


CUSTOMS/DUTIES

Tobacco......... 200 Cigarettes and 250g of Tobacco

Liquor............Litre of Spirits and 2 Litres of Wine and 3 Litres of Beer

Perfume.........A Reasonable Amount of Perfume

Gifts...............Reasonable Quantity

Prohibited: Guns, weapons and ammunition without special permission; explosive items; radioactive substances; narcotics; pornographic publications; any publications, records, films and drawings critical of Mongolia; palaeontological and archaeological findings without special permission; collections of various plants and their seeds; birds and wild or domestic animals; wool, raw skins, hides and furs without permission from the appropriate authorities.



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