As the unfazed Mongolian Government went ahead with the scheduled visit ignoring Beijing’s frowns, China announced it was cancelling the scheduled bilateral talks for a number of soft loans and a number of industrial projects. As things stand, the prospect for the proposed China visit by the Mongolian Prime Minister Erdenebat Jargaltulga next year, is quite dim.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the Dalai Lama ‘”a political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China.” It went a step ahead and said that Mongolia “should not provide any form of support and convenience to the Dalai Lama clique.” That Mongolia refused to blink despite being heavily dependent on China reveals the extent of love and loyalty of the common Mongolian people that the religious leader commands. It also, highlights the fact that the Mongols dislike the Hans.

‘Dislike’ is a euphemism. Those who have visited Mongolia have come back with the impression that the Mongolians positively hate the Chinese. Advertisements in local newspapers for jobs and room rentals often carry the caveat “No Chinese, please.” In the eyes of the ordinary Mongolians, the Chinese are rude and extremely money-minded. They also resent the presence of migrant Chinese labourers who, they believe, are taking away their jobs. The Mongolian labourers are also paid very low wages.

Mongolia is economically very much dependent on its southern neighbor. China accounts for 89 per cent of Mongolia’s exports and 26 per cent of its imports. China is playing a major role in the infrastructure development activities currently going on in Mongolia. When the Chinese cancelled the bilateral talks following the Dalai Lama’s visit, the severely cash-strapped Mongolia was seeking a soft loan of $4.2 billion, besides financial and technical assistance on the Tavan-Tolgoi railway line, a coal-gas project and a copper plant.

Chinese economic assistance is of paramount importance to Mongolia now as it has been hit by a severe recession. The budget deficit this year is estimated to have doubled to $1 billion while the GDP has fallen by 1.6 per cent in the first nine months.

Coming back to the Dalai Lama again, this was the religious leader’s eighth visit to Mongolia. The first took place in 1979. On earlier visits also, Beijing reacted equally angrily. For example, in 2002, Beijing closed its borders with Mongolia. In 2006, it temporarily cancelled all flights to Ulan Bator. But despite Beijing’s known hostility to the Dalai Lama, the latter holds indisputable sway over 53 per cent of Mongolian people who follow Tibetan Buddhism. (About 38 per cent of the population does not profess any religion.) An ethnic Mongolian from Siberia (Russia) travelled along with forty others for fifteen hours just to have a glimpse of the Dalai Lama.

Of late, Beijing has been putting pressure on Nepal for preventing Tibetan pilgrims from entering India. Late last month, the Nepal police detained about 40 Tibetans at Dhangadi, ten kms from Indo-Nepal border. The pilgrims were on their way to attend the Kalachakra teaching session that will be held at Bodh Gaya in Bihar from January 3 to 14 next year. The Dalai Lama will deliver the sermon. With this year’s Kalachakra nearing, the local Chinese authorities in Tibet are showing extreme unwillingness to issue valid passports to Tibetans lest they should travel to India. Some who have already crossed over to Nepal or India have been asked to return by December 20.

Mongolia is a vast country with an area of 15.66 lakh sq. kms and a very small population of 31.81 lakh which works out to a population density of just 1.97 per sq. km. At present brisk development activities are going on in Mongolia in which many developed countries are taking part. In May last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mongolia and announced a credit line of one billion dollars besides signing fourteen treaties covering a wide range of fields from defence to agriculture.

If Beijing’s frosty relations with Mongolia over the Dalai Lama visit continue, it would offer an opportunity to India to forge closer ties with Mongolia which is a land-locked country sandwiched between Russia on the north and China in the south. Mongolia is endowed with rich mineral resources. India and Mongolia can cooperate in developing these resources to mutual benefit.(IPA Service)