NEW DELHI: Mongolia wants India to publicly protest China’s decision to arbitrarily introduce border tariffs as a way of punishing this land-locked country for inviting the Dalai Lama in November.

“We have a long spiritual relationship with India,” said Gonchig Ganbold, Mongolia’s ambassador. “It’s important that India raises its voice against the unilateral measures China is taking against us which is hurting our people specially when severe winter is upon us.” Silence, he said, could be construed as giving China a “pass” for its behaviour.

The envoy held talks with Pradeep Rawat, joint secretary, east Asia in the MEA. But it is not yet clear what kind of support India can give Mongolia, whose two biggest neighbours are China and Russia. Sources in the government said India was committed to support Mongolia, without clarifying whether that would entail a public statement to anger the Chinese. “We consider Mongolia to be a partner in democracy,” they said.

After the Dalai Lama visited Mongolia for the ninth time in November – which Mongolia allowed in the teeth of China’s official objections – Mongolia suddenly found all official interactions with Chinese officials cancelled.
Trucks crossing into China’s autonomous province of Inner Mongolia are now charged 10 yuan each, and 0.1 per cent of the worth of the cargo if it is beyond 10,000 yuan, which includes copper and coking coal among other things. Mongolia is in the grip of severe winter, and the Chinese action is affecting movement of essential commodities, he said.

China’s actions hold unhappy portends for China’s One-Belt-One-Road (OBOR) policy, if countries on China’s periphery can be arbitrarily subjected to economic sanctions if they go against Beijing’s diktat.

Mongolia has a long history of defying the Chinese system, despite them being so dependent on Beijing for transit. In their recently declassified documents, Zhou Enlai almost came to fisticuffs with the then PM of Mongolia, Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, in 1964. The issue was the Sino-Indian war and China demanded Ulan Bator support its view.

China is more able to enforce its views on Mongolia now, being a superpower. Russia is unlikely to be of much help because Moscow is now virtually Beijing’s junior partner.

Indrani Bagchi| Dec 7, 2016, 08.58 PM IST