India, Mongolia Bolster Military Ties As New Delhi Looks To Expand Footprint in East Asia

The three-day visit by Singh to Mongolia on September 5-8 is the first by an Indian defence minister. The two countries upgraded their ties to the level of ‘Strategic Partnership’ during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Ulaanbaatar in 2015, which was the first by an Indian leader. Defence ties remain the key pillar of bilateral relationship.

India and Mongolia deepened their defence partnership as Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday inaugurated the ‘Cyber Security Training Centre’ at the National Defence University in Ulaanbaatar.

A statement by the Indian defence ministry described the project, which has been developed with assistance from New Delhi, as “one-of-its-kind” which would impart cybersecurity training to the Mongolian Armed Forces.

Singh said that the “in-depth deliberations” between the defence ministers will add “further momentum to India-Mongolia defence cooperation”.

The visiting Indian defence minister held delegation-level talks with his Mongolian counterpart Lieutenant General. Saikhanbayar Gursed as well as a separate meeting with the country’s president U Khurelsukh, an official statement said.

The Indian defence minister said that the meetings would serve to strengthen the “multi-faceted” strategic partnership between the two nations.

Singh said that “strengthening military-level trust” between the two nations was important to maintain regional stability, as per an official statement.

The Indian minister underlined that military ties between the countries have been expanding since 2015 and now include joint military drills, joint working group meetings, capacity building programmes for Mongolian forces as well as other high-level exchanges.

Singh also described New Delhi as an important “third neighbour” of Mongolia, which is a reference to Ulaanbaatar’s policy of cultivating ties with nations other than China and Russia, both of which are landlocked Mongolia’s only neighbours.

Japan, the US, India, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Germany and South Korea are currently classified as Mongolia’s “third neighbours”.

‘Highly Strategic Country’ For India, Says Ex-Ambassador

Former Indian ambassador Anil Trigunayat, who has served as a deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Mongolia, described Mongolia as a “highly strategic country” for New Delhi because of its location bordering both Russia and China.

“For historical and Buddhist reasons, Mongolia is probably the only country (in the region) where India's liked and loved,” Trigunayat told Sputnik, while referring to the shared cultural heritage of the two countries.

Buddhism, the predominant religion in Mongolia, has its origins in India, a reason which brings the two countries together.

The ex-diplomat underlined that the ties between the two countries have further developed to include the domain of capacity building in the defence sector. Trigunayat notes that traditionally ties between the countries were confined to cooperation in the petrochemical sector, information and technology as well as people-to-people exchanges.

The visit by Singh comes amid a volatile regional situation in east Asia in the wake of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last month, leading to Beijing holding its largest ever war games in six regions around Taiwan. New Delhi, for its part, has urged for de-escalation of regional tensions.

Singh’s Mongolia visit is part of a two-nation tour which would also take him to Tokyo for the ‘2+2 Dialogue’ between India and Japan, which will witness the participation of defence and foreign ministers of both the countries.