of the hello i'm manila chan you are tuned into modus operandi. the so called us pivot to the pacific is under way, but at terms actually kind of deceiving while being general public attention is placed on taiwan. there are quiet or, or subtle moves being made in asia to counter china. today, we'll take a look at mongolia, landlocked between 2 superpowers, china and russia, for the us has labeled enemies for mongolia falls to western pressure. we'll discuss it. all right, let's get into the m o. the thousands of years ago, mongolia was the eastern military power dominating across the region. riding on

horseback, toward modern day, your journey gets con, lead his so called hoard to congress, thousands and thousands of miles of territory for ever answering his name and a world history. the mongol empire was once the largest contiguous land empire ever but fast forward some millennial later after a stint in the soviet union. and then it's eventual collapse. in the early 19 ninety's, mongolia has largely remained out of international news until now, a country of only some 4000000 people, most of whom live in abject poverty, the prime minister. oh, you are dean loops on almost where i made a trip to washington dc to meet with vice president campbell harris. secretary of state anthony linkedin and other bite and admin officials. president biden did not meet with them ongoing and pm, but that didn't change the reason for the trip. the mongolian leader signed his

country up to be a member of the multilateral open skies. treaty that would make for mutual cooperation of air space and commercial flights. so this all in hopes that the deal would help boost the country's economic position. but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. joining us to talk about this and the new attention towards greater asia who are bringing a friend of the show or alistair comment. ozzy is a political analyst and consultant based in curtis dawn. he's got experience working with the u. n and the world back. so our share recently over the summer, the prime minister of mongolia and made a trip to washington dc where he's signed onto the us multi lateral open skies treaty, which the us already has with a 130 other countries. the treaty on its face purports to be about opening the sky,

the commercial and cargo flights between countries, which obviously would help increase trade. so while much of that is true, is it also true that open skies treaties come with permission for the us to use? mongolia skies for reconnaissance flights and vice versa. money, look, this is the case actually open skies the trees. they're always tricky. and so there's a high possibility that to some countries as how those treat is to use open space for various purposes, including reconnaissance missions. and that's precisely the reason why my role is neighbors, such as china and russia are concerned, they're deeply concerned. so china has been new voice seems to the concerns that the us is conducting reconnaissance missions for for 4 years. and so,

and russia, you know, as you, as you know now it's, we, in the state of war. so, russell also made its concerns clear. so, and there's no way mongolia can assure that openness guys treaty will not be used by the us to conduct a record of suspicion. so it's very hard to establish that. so up at this point, we can say that the open sky streets, they're just open and so of, and those concerns about china and russia should be taken seriously actually to. so skeptics to this new collaboration, which the american vice president described as just strengthening ties. the skeptics say this relationship is more about what the us wants from mongolia, and that would be one to drive a wedge between mongolia and its neighbors, to the north, russia, and neighbors, to the south, china, and then to, to have access to, to procure or extract some of the vast mineral wealth in mongolia such as gold,

copper, and other rare earth minerals, which are estimated to be valued at roughly 3 trillion us dollars. we should note that your own country, curtis don, has similar mineral wealth or the skeptics, right? so about mongolia look, skeptics that are right, in this case, the thing is the united states, it makes no secret that it wants mongolia to be on the side of the western world in this 2 political rivalry. the thing is over the past several digit starting from the 199-012-1991 goal. yeah, it was able to shed a chuckle from the soviet union. the united states has invested billions of dollars a lot of efforts to make one goal, a model, democracy. so the other neighbors included countries in the central asian region.

take example from one goal. so the us has a vested interest. there were a number of eventually mongolia that to we can democracy in the eyes of the us officials so, but now sticks are too high. and so the united states wants to cheap mongolia as a country. it wants to keep its resources away from russia in china, and be useful, melodious prosperity. and it was to remain a democracy and a d on the side of a democratic world. and of course, the goal is in a very difficult situation, just like the central asian regions. it has deep ties with china, 90 percent of its expos go to china. 90 percent of the mobile is the hydro power resources oil gas come from russia. so one goal is do depend on those 2 powerful neighbors, but it also wants to preserve really good relations with the united states. mongolia wants to keep that image as a, as a shining democracy on a hill,

a very bad, also care of neighborhood. and there are a lot of my goal is to go up with this belief that they are different, that they are a nation that has the lower has passed. it has an issue of conquerors. and now all these people, especially younger generation, you want to be a, uh, strong democracy. and it was to be like a, like a connected to the west of the world. but it's at the same time there, cognizant that without russia and china is a country mul. mueller, most of life. so it's a conundrum. when you let me go in officials in order to see this, they are finding themselves between a walk and a hard place. on the one hand, they want to use their resources to kind of, to exploit that to the, was to the east. so they want to preserve good relations with both of the world, but it's hard to sit on the 2 chairs and hang up to these hard times a testing my goal is patients. meanwhile, mongolia a green several years ago to the c, m r a. c. the china, mongolia, russia,

economic court, or what stopped prairie road. now for china, this falls under their b. r i the belgian road initiative, or what some might say, the new soap road that rail starts in china is 10. gin goes through central mongolia and then north into rushes, siberia, and quarter. so this one vastly improved mongolia has import export capabilities, given that, you know, as a landlocked country. what is the attitude about initiatives such as this across that region? well, the general attitude of the people in the region, including the mobile and essentially asian countries, is hardly positive. any arrangement in with china and russia involved. that's a good news from older people and the central asian populations. so there's lovins, you $1001.00 goal is already part of numerous organizations involving china and russia. china hutch, critical operation, i see on the score of others,

world trade organization. so what was the low, those international inter public organizations? and they also want they want their goods to be explored all over the world. but there's also some skepticism. one goal is a country of less than $4000000.00 people. and there's a certain number of organizations where you can be effectively a member, you know, of these organizations, the carol law of obligations and agent tax resources, as well as the ownership of the government, which is already strained by so many commitments as so many projects we internally and externally. so the question on the minds of skeptics is this, can we pull this new initiative off? do we have the resources we have the stamina to carry through. so, and my goal is to realize that they are overstretched. so, but nobody can't stand a d city initiative where china is, is one of the parties. so i think that there's positive editors issues. yes. but

there's also concerns. there's quite concerned yes, sanctions and the like. now we've seen that us do this already all around the world . all right, coming up next mongolia is stuck between a rock and a hard place. i'm referring to the ceo and nato. we'll discuss it when we return with alice are coming up so tight. the ammo will be right back. the the thing that would inform you to have with them for the gifts for the state of celia was this because they did just wouldn't care to get through the new year. oh, for g like teach. so i know for me, kitchen car scholars should go and you have to do this. i'm going to last, i look forward to you with that though, especially if it's a washing machine and when you move we must move them on

the stairs. i'm pushing lots and lots of the amount of water to move menu. so what's the competing animal just i did. i used them for so the lowest quality unload. i wanted somebody to call study to the progressive rock. i guess they were shy finish. this is just all just for good news. i see i'm a fraction of when you come swing to do friday. here's the material, ordering the report of people for the, for sure. interested in the commercial induction to some of the the the

the tape uh, but with get a desk go was like whoever, but i was talking to you let me see to see it. oh see on the me see, oh see, she must see washing who'd be in the most of the you have to put us on that i can is i'm data lee and institution developed dependent on many countries. they have 1300000000 roman catholics around the world. and as they say in america, follow the money that it can guess most of its money from pro western countries.

that was a lot of the nato countries, spain, italy, england, germany, as well as mexico and the united states. so it is dependent on the fact that people sort of come on. let's get cool grants. and you said you have to deal with rich new i'm is the welcome back to the m o m l a chance we are back with alice your comment off. he is a geo political analyst based and curtis down. thank you for staying with us, alistair. so let's talk more specifically about mongolia is domestic circumstances, according to transparency dot org on the countries corruption perception index. mongolia is right among some of the most corrupt countries in the world. there are only 64 other countries in the world with worse scores. what's driving that

perception and what would help improve it's ranking in the world? when you look, i'm think curtis star button curtis done. we closely observe. we watch what happens, email goal it because what happens there will have strong repercussions for us. and we are developing along similar lines. so we, we both were pursue of coming to the stage. we both of these, which is the sofa from soviet or corrupt bureaucracies, as well as a decrepit crumbling infrastructure. and just like main goal occurred is tom also has problems with these a powerful business, at least could have told ties to really establishment. so what was think about mongolia is that it's a small country. and you would think that in a small country where population is less than 3 and a half 1000000, that would be stronger oversight over government bureaucracy any situations. but the reality is quite complex. so we know that the local officials,

they fight with corruption. they have all these initiatives, but at the same time, there are strong suspicions among people that will, there's a lot of corruption. the thing is media, mongolia, it claims that it's so open and all that. but to a lot of jo was the use self censorship because they're afraid of these business relates to control the goal and so they use self censorship. so without strong media, without strong watch dogs, it's very hard to fight corruption. most importantly was your order for you as a place rule, vast country. so if you go to alone bought the capital, it's just flourishing. it's just low money in that city. but outside loan butter, the regions, you know, those rural areas, the development, the one by the way, i see the smoke trickling down. and the reason is that traveling from blown boxes of those just bridges is quite problematic. the roads network are not networks of

developing, but they're still many kind of a there's, there's need for, there's room for improvement. so when you have a vast country it's, it's hard to travel to this region. so it's hard for officials in the low mater to cheap oversight over those drill grass in the region. so there's this geography. so, and then there is a so role of history as a communist country, formerly communist country. google inherited a lot of corrupt institutions, as well as the government officials wants to empower for good or officials. they steal cherry strong influence. all those of the young democrats and reformers have comfortable or so there is this a struggle for control over the country between young reformers and the old soviet era. nomic le tour. uh like a buick. buick drop or so in some it's a complex country and so ordinary people just like in the central asian region have lost hope. they had been a number of uprising,

so revolutions. all of them were rooted in high corruption in government. so, business interests that have ties to china, they also play a big role, and we know that the china is not known for democratic control over or scanned them . and so my goal is to actually use andre lisa from china, and they're all these business interests going back and forth. so the, some people, some skeptic believe the ties with a bone democracies explains it wise instruction. but such concerns, of course, they might be overstated. generally, i think that there's just popular content over how they're going, but as long as we mentioned before, mongolia is landlocked between 2 superpowers, russia and china. they're members of the seo, the shanghai cooperation organization. but they're also what's called a needle partner, where they're not signatories or full members. rather,

they've signed a memorandum of cooperation with the block. or the main goal is hedging their bets here in terms of security, do you foresee a time in future that they might have to choose sides one walk over the other? one thing is that list has been under this pressure for centuries. manila is a country, it has been on the influence of so many large power. so since the time of getting you called in. and so even today we see the strong rivalry and a more goals. they've proved great diplomats and skilful negotiators for now they managed to keep this geopolitical rivalry in control and they've played the cards well. but things are getting harder and harder and the officials them acknowledge that how was this west and the sanctions against russia. caesar become very difficult. so what we should keep in mind that the main goal is not going to

join nato any time soon. and this part of the partnership for peace or for some of the programs. but the web on goal as part of need are they don't include membership, they're not even close to them. so they provide me with a chance to train their soldiers along with some needle trips, but nothing more, nothing less than that. and so my goal is aware of that, and it's actually showcasing the partnership with, with needle. there's just a symbolic, a practical solution which is not intended to we cannot model this tie securitized with russia or china, china and russia comes 1st when it comes to security. uh, for one goal. yeah. and there's no way more than one goal yet to choose other regions or countries or rush or you try and they will pay a big price. so in some one goal is again a play dough. it you game and balancing game. and this is similar to what we in the

centralized origin was back as phone calls like stone and tourist are doing. so we're closing watching mongolia home on goal is pretty russia house, really china in the us. so would you learn a lot for mumbles to capacity to have good relations with all these large and small countries? according to a 2020 report by the world bank, my goal is poverty rate remain stubbornly high. 28.4 percent of the country is considered impoverished. that's surviving on just under $2.00 per day. the next 15 percent of my goal is population is just barely above that poverty line, which means they can easily slip into the former group. so together that is some of 43.4 percent of mongolia as 3 and a half 1000000 nationals, almost half the population who subsist on about $5.00 per day or less given the countries and natural resources. i think this is a stark contrast. how can

a government improve the living standards for its people? the, the 1st step is actually to clean the government to clean their act. so the officials, which are now strongly tied to all these informal business, the lead. so they need to cut those tories. there's a conflict of interest going on, and so much of the development goes to long butter as, as i've said. and while other regions they are receiving short attention, insufficient attention from the central government. so the other important step is to look at china. so china is largest powerhouse, in fact, much of the developing, the goal that has seen over the past several days is essential to china, china's investments and more liberal migration of mobiles, interviews, parts of china. and so without china as a, you can only help, i think more rolly and so will not achieve strong level of developing. so,

and number 3 is that without russia lawyers, they won't make much progress, especially the region. so my goal at which border russia, so the investment from brochure in terms of oil and gas uh, they are cheat one goal and economy. so um, but we should also keep in mind that the geography is a major hindrance to develop. and so much of the bladder specialist and so, and of course there are a lot of resources, but extracting those resources requires high tech equipment. uh, you know, these trains, uh, specialists, uh, really dedicated people who can work in harsh environments. you know, my goal is, suffers from this condition called jude. it's like this key, really bad weather that affects my role in winter. millions of livestock dies because it's a view of climate condition, so it is a huge impact on, on the economy. so how can you were standing alexa, the such harsh climate,

the condition? so there are a lot of for difficulties for mobile government. and so then go, government has been trying to meet those challenges by relying on, you know, how, from china, as well as from russian. so in some to complex a question of home move or to move forward. but there's a already, a team of bureaucratic official training in the west who were educated in china. i think that they know they, they have the best best answers to the questions and come on development. and so they are now struggling for influence. and i think that with these officials, i think to my goal is in good hands. so it sounds like there needs to be more focus on infrastructure in that country. now, last hour. sure. as, as a cultural note, can you tell us a little bit about what type of structure that you're sitting in and what are you wearing? manila, i'm actually now on the shores of lake is cool. 800 years ago and

more. dig hard and his heart of a conquerors, they marched all the way from the source of cool, courteous task, monitor, tory on which to you are on the congress. so i'm sitting in a traditional one goal, jr. intruders time. we call it. as you're aware of a deal, actually it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a wonderful traditional manse clothing. as you can see, it's really a fix. it keeps new wire. it's really cold. now it's a glare. so a guess they are amazing structures. they are like a round shape to a weak ram type tens, and so they keep people warm because they are surrounded by so felt the made avoid the highly mobile. that's what movie and conqueror soldiers broke with them along the way. they would stay in these gears and so it's really spacious, as well as in house or more than 20 people. so it's, it's, we are encouraged stone,

we are proud of our little guys. these are cherry won't be blocked as well. my, my interest is they will win those and i'm so proud to be connected to my goal is for blood, as well as through culture, alice or come to the political analyst and consultant based and curtis down, his background experience working with the un and world bank thank you so much for your time and coming to us from the coolest structure that we have ever seen on the show so far. thank you. right? that's going to do it for this episode of modus operandi the show that digs deep in the foreign policy and current affairs. i'm your host male, a chance. thank you for tuning in. we'll see you again next time to figure out the m. o. the

have games dan has attracted conquerors attention from time immemorial, in the 19th century, the british empire decided to subjugate that century. the british view the afghan lands as the northern gateway to india, and wanted to turn them into an obedient province, trying to predict independence. the mere of a dentist in the us blue homage turned for help the russia waste the bread is considered their deal political adversary. this was the last straw for london. britain declared war on the half gans in august 18. 39. the invaders occupied couple and brought their henchmen to bowers. the invaders brutally suppressed. any resistance thus, is telly they slaughtered all i have gan man who had reached the delta and raped

hundreds of women seeking to humiliate the muslims of 18. 41 general uprising against the british yoke began debris. it is under the command of general elton stone last couple and started to retreat. only a few out of the 16000 invaders who had begun their march from google made it to the british position. i only seen jello but the defeat of the royal army caused a norm is damaged to the prestige of the british empire throughout the world. the victory of the afghan people became the most important events in the history of the oppressed peoples resistance to the colonialists. it just failed the races. smith of the european invincibility, the

the as a result of why it was,

can be cited by lines. these can be cited by true importance of we can never be kind of a station. so that transparency is an extraordinary drawn mistake. patrice then just succeeded in finding the documents that existed in making them available to the was public. i mean, what could be more moving box by publishing information and sharing information with the public? he was exercising the rights for a speech he did. so in the public interest lies 10 smith in dalton and honestly of late continuously. i know why advice may assume that no one who is the guy that illegal anymore wisely bought. adjustments for to be on box weighing

a 175 used to go through the sentence. all we going to let that stay the headlines. this all costs us as an agreement has been reached with is well on how much to extend the current seats platform. another 2 days had been due the supply to date sizes, silva, and the west bank of crowds of people waiting for the release of the next group of policy and in prison is set to apply to apply as industry and the thought is vile. there are times ongoing, the wilton send you off to the 5th explode as wildly plans to advocate funds that you do a settlement in the west by the live problem. all right, joshua new center in most of the.