It was in a traditional yurt that Emmanuel Macron was received on Sunday for the first visit of a French president to Mongolia, where he promoted a partnership focused on energy with this landlocked country between China and Russia which is arousing Western interests.
When he got off the plane in Ulaanbaatar at the end of the afternoon, welcomed by a hedge of the Mongolian honor guard in traditional blue, red and yellow dress, the French president tasted a cheese as is customary. dry cow’s milk offered to distinguished guests.
On Sukhbaatar Square, named after the hero of Mongolian independence, Emmanuel Macron then reviewed the troops with his counterpart Ukhnaa Khurelsukh.
The French head of state is stopping off in Mongolia for a visit of a few hours after taking part in the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky was the star guest.
The latter had come to address the leaders of non-aligned countries such as Brazil or India, also invited to the G7.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, France has multiplied its efforts to speak to countries that have not clearly condemned the war led by Moscow. The brief but symbolic state visit to Mongolia fits into this context.
With the Mongolian President, Emmanuel Macron said he “shared” his “determination to support an attacked State” and his “objective of a return to peace on the European continent in compliance with international law”.
He praised Ulaanbaatar’s contribution “to the multilateral system on which international security is based”, even if Ukhnaa Khurelsukh limited himself, in his statement to the press, to a vague plea in favor of “maintaining peace and security in the world”.
France also aims to strengthen bilateral ties in the energy field.
President Macron notably defended the cause of the French nuclear group Orano, already present in the country and a candidate for a large-scale uranium extraction project which has yet to obtain the approval of the Mongolian government — potentially one of the largest mines in the world.
He assured that the project would respect the “best environmental and social standards”, while the company is often criticized by local environmental movements. “The partnership with Orano is a structuring element”, “this will therefore make it possible to extract extremely important critical metals”, he added, referring to his quest for “energy sovereignty” for France.
For its part, Paris is committed to facilitating the financing of Mongolia’s ecological transition with cooperation on renewable energies and nuclear power.
This semi-desert country, subject to extreme temperatures, is particularly vulnerable to climate change. What is more, we explain on the French side, it is 90% dependent on coal for its electricity and therefore needs to decarbonize its economy.
Currently, 86% of Mongolia’s total exports of all commodities go to China. Half of these Chinese purchases are coal.
“The fact that Mongolia is on the way back (from Hiroshima, editor’s note) allows us to make this historic first” with important stakes on the “geostrategic level”, it was explained in the entourage of the French president. .
“Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russia and China, but also a country which has a model of government which is liberal, which holds elections, which has known alternations, and which moreover seeks to diversify its partnerships in order to be more robust and able to deal under better conditions with its large Russian and Chinese neighbours”, it was underlined.
In Ulaanbaatar, after his meeting with his counterpart in a yurt installed inside the presidential palace, Emmanuel Macron participated in a state dinner at the Genghis Khan museum, named after the great Mongolian conqueror of the 13th century. The institution will lend part of its collection to the Nantes history museum, in western France, for an exhibition scheduled for October.
The French president, who is due to return to Paris at the end of the evening, has invited Ukhnaa Khurelsukh for a state visit to France in October.
21/05/2023 18:15:57 – Ulaanbaatar (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
