The Washington Diplomat

Ambassador of Mongolia Jalbuu Choinhor
Leaping Into the 21st Century
by John Shaw

Jalbuu Choinhor, Mongolia’s ambassador to the United States, says his nation has just passed through a pivotal, even historic, decade in which sweeping political and economic reforms have been implemented.

His nation, he says, is now trying to manage the daunting and delicate task of leaping into the 21st century while retaining traditions that have been developed over nearly a thousand years of Mongolian history.

A friendly, soft-spoken man, Choinhor has an extensive background in diplomacy and a passionate interest in art and literature.

In an interview at the Mongolian Embassy in Georgetown, Choinhor speaks with pride about his country’s history and especially its recent emergence from nearly seven decades of single-party rule and totalitarian oppression.

"Since 1990, there has been an important transition in Mongolia," he says. "We have made the transition to democracy and to a market economy. Mongolia’s changes were basic and fundamental. They were changes in the whole political, economic and social circumstances."

Choinhor notes that in the last decade Mongolia’s communist system was dismantled, a multi-party democracy was created, market reforms were advanced, a new constitution was approved, and parliamentary and presidential elections have been held in which almost all of the nation’s citizens eagerly participated.

"The Mongolian people are very serious about democracy. They believe these parliamentary and presidential elections are a very important part of our traditional Mongolian statehood. They feel they are participating in a nation-building process, a statehood-building process," he says.

"What happened in Mongolia is a reflection of a worldwide phenomenon. But we had this transition in a specifically Mongolian way. It was peaceful. There was no bloodshed. The change was deep and profound, but it was peaceful. The elder generation was wise enough to be cooperative, and the younger generation was patient in the way it accepted change," he adds.

Mongolia is in northern Asia, wedged between China and Russia. It is about the size of Alaska but has a population of only 2.6 million. Landlocked, Mongolia extends from the semi-arid Gobi Desert to the mountainous steppe region.

Genghis Khan formed a single Mongolian state in 1203. He and his immediate successors conquered nearly all of Asia and European Russia and sent armies as far as Central Europe and Southeast Asia. Genghis Khan’s grandson, Kublai Khan, conquered China and established the Yuan dynasty and gained fame in Europe through the writings of Marco Polo.

Almost 90 percent of the area of modern Mongolia is pasture or desert wasteland. About half of Mongolia’s people live in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Semi-nomadic life still predominates in the countryside, but settled agricultural communities are becoming more common.

Long a province of China, Mongolia won its independence in 1921 with the backing of the Soviet Union. A communist regime was installed in Mongolia in 1924, and it ruled for about 70 years. The Mongolian government was modeled on the Soviet system in which only the Communist Party—the MPRP—was permitted to function.

A reform effort was launched in 1990 when the first organized opposition group, the Democratic Union, pressed for sweeping political changes. Mongolia’s first multi-party parliamentary elections were held in July 1990. A new constitution went into effect in 1992 with the first direct presidential election taking place the next year.

The Democratic Union defeated the MPRP in the 1996 parliamentary elections and pushed reforms to modernize the economy. Committed to free market economics, it eased price controls, liberalized domestic and international trade, and restructured Mongolia’s banking system and energy sector.

The Mongolian economy had grown very dependent on Soviet assistance, which once represented one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product. This aid disappeared almost overnight when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The economy has traditionally been based on agriculture. Mongolia has a large animal husbandry sector, with huge numbers of sheep, horses, cattle, and goats. It has the second-largest cashmere industry in the worl d, ranking only behind China. Mongolia also has extensive mineral deposits, such as copper, coal, tin, tungsten and gold.

Choinhor is encouraged by Mongolia’s recent economic advances.

"Privatization is in full swing in Mongolia," he says. "It is a very important process. Already two-thirds of our gross domestic product is produced by the private sector."

But he acknowledges that Mongolia remains a very poor nation in which nearly a third of the population live in poverty. And he notes that the economy is fragile and can be derailed by severe weather and fluctuations in world commodity prices. Looking to the future, the ambassador envisions a Mongolia with a robust economy based on agriculture, mining and, increasingly, tourism.

Choinhor says his country’s rugged beauty and unspoiled wilderness make it a compelling place to visit.

"Mongolia has a great future for tourism because of its pristine nature, historical places and strong national identity and traditions," he says.

"You can drink from each and every spring in Mongolia. I dream one day that Mongolia will become the world’s national park," he says.

Choinhor also believes Mongolia will become a key transit center that links Asia and Europe. The ambassador notes that Russia is poised to build important oil and gas pipelines that would pass through Mongolia and require significant infrastructure to support it.

"This would be a tremendously large construction project. This would be the construction project of the century. It would be very important for Mongolia," he says.

The ambassador says that as Mongolia moves forward it is trying to reestablish strong bonds with Russia and China.
"Mongolia’s foreign policy priorities are good relations with its immediate neighbors, Russia and China. Our histories with these nations have been intermingled for centuries," he says.

Choinhor says that Mongolia wants to be more active in Asia and is interested in being a member of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation group.

"APEC is a very important group in our region," he says. "We feel somewhat outside the APEC process. The process is very difficult. They always postpone the admission of new members. We are joining some of the working groups of APEC. The door is still closed. We are knocking. We would like to join the family of Asian nations."

But the ambassador says that as Mongolia integrates with Asia, it must retain its distinctive identity.
"National identity includes language, culture, traditions, history, religion. These are the things that make Mongolia unique. For small Mongolia, our national identity has been very important to survive by these giants, Russia and China," he adds.

Choinhor, 56, brings to his work in Washington extensive diplomatic experience. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations in 1970 and later earned a doctorate in history from the Moscow Diplomatic Academy. In addition to his native Mongolian, he speaks English and Russian.

He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1970, first working in the department of international organizations. Choinhor moved to Geneva in 1972, serving for several years in Mongolia’s mission to the United Nations. Choinhor returned to Mongolia in 1975 and for the next decade worked in the Foreign Ministry’s press and policy planning unit.

He served for three years as director of the Asia Pacific department and then moved into the post of deputy minister for foreign affairs in 1990. After five years in this job, he was selected to be Mongolia’s ambassador to United States. He is also the ambassador to Canada.

Choinhor is trying to nurture Mongolia’s relatively new relationship with the United States. The United States formally recognized Mongolia in January of 1987 and established its first embassy in Ulaanbaatar in June of 1988. Mongolia sent its first ambassador to Washington a year later.

The two nations have signed a host of cultural and economic agreements. The United States granted Mongolia most-favored-nation trade status in 1991, the same year that a bilateral treaty of trade and commerce was concluded. The United States and Mongolia negotiated a bilateral investment treaty in 1994.

Choinhor says American officials have shown a key interest in helping Mongolia implement economic and political reforms.

"America is interested because we are becoming a successful democracy, out from the communist system, and we are in a strategic location between China and Russia," he says.

The ambassador has worked hard to introduce Mongolia to the United States. The embassy has helped organize art exhibits and cultural events. Choinhor has also helped arrange the visits of more than 20 members of Congress to Mongolia.

"These visits are very important. When they come and see Mongolia they can understand what our challenges and problems are," he says.

Choinhor has traveled to nearly 25 American states, speaking primarily to university and business audiences. He is determined to help boost U.S. investment in Mongolia.

American firms are becoming increasingly involved in the oil, mining, heavy equipment, cashmere and tourism sectors of the Mongolian economy and are considering possible participation in the oil and gas pipelines that would run from Russia to China through Mongolia.

During his free time, the ambassador enjoys reading and writing. He has written a book of lyrical verses called "Gobi Meteorites" and has worked with his wife to translate Shakespeare’s "Macbeth" into Mongolian.

Choinhor has translated about half of Shakespeare’s sonnets from English into Mongolian and vows to keep working on this. "My lifetime project is to finish all 154 sonnets," he says.

The ambassador and his wife expect to return to Mongolia next year and are determined to stay active in the artistic and literary world. Among other things, they want to create a Mongolian Shakespeare society. Literature, Choinhor declares, is where he hopes to make a lasting contribution to his country.

"Diplomacy is temporary, but literature is eternal," he says. "I will be remembered as ambassador for several decades. My translations of Shakespeare will last for centuries."

John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.