China indefinitely postpones bilateral ties with Mongolia after His Holiness’ visit

By Lobsang Tenchoe

DHARAMSALA, Nov 28: Provoked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Mongolia, China has indefinitely postponed an inter-governmental meeting and another one on mines and energy with Mongolia.
After the Tibetan spiritual leaders visit Beijing froze bilateral diplomacy with Mongolia.

“The wrongdoing by Mongolia on this issue diminished political foundation between the two countries and brought negative impact to bilateral relations,” The Indian Express quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang as saying.

Mongolia, already embroiled in an economic recession, was hoping to seal a $4.2 billion loan with Beijing to solve its short-term spending needs, but Beijing’s decision meant the termination of the scheduled talks on Chinese loans and infrastructure initiatives in the country.

“The meeting was intended for negotiations on soft loans and the projects on Tavan Tolgoi railroad, a copper plant and coal gasification project. Unfortunately, the Chinese side responded that this visit was unacceptable,’’ Bloomberg quoted Munkh-Orgil Tsend, Mongolia’s Foreign Minister as saying in its report.

Mongolia hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Nov 18- 23 in spite of China’s warning of serious repercussions to the bilateral ties between the two countries.

The landlocked country with a large Buddhist population described the Tibetan Nobel laureate’s visit as strictly religious in nature.

“China will await Mongolia’s response to decide whether further sanctions would be imposed, Global Times quoted Yang Mian, a professor of international relations at the Communication University of China as saying in its report.