On the back of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Emmanuel Macron will become the first French president to make an official trip to Mongolia – a landlocked nation between China and Russia.
Mongolia is becoming increasingly dependent on China for trade, commerce and investment, and there are fears the country is gradually moving toward a single party dictatorship.
"Mongolia is a small island of democracy in a vast ocean of authoritarian regimes," said Enghebatu Togochoc, of the New-York-based Southern Mongolia Human Rights Info Centre (SMHRIC).
Togochoc says he is concerned about China's suppression of the large Mongolian minority living inside its borders, and has reported on the recent arrest of dissident writer Lhamjab Borjigin.
Borjigin fled to Mongolia from Inner Mongolia, an autonomous Chinese region, in an attempt to escape Chinese prosecution.
Mongolia is a small country, is a small island of democracy in the vast ocean of authoritarian regimes.
View of Enghebatu Togochoc, Director Southern Mongolia Human Rights Center in New York
Enghebatu told RFI that Chinese police crossed the border into the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, arrested Borjigin, and took him back to China.
China, he says, has over the decades deprived Mongolians from their traditional nomadic lifestyle and is even curbing the use of their language.
Enghebatu hopes Macron will tell President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh that his government is getting "oo close to the authoritarian regime of China and that as a result Mongolia risks losing allies in the free and democratic world.
Le président français Emmanuel Macron se rendra en visite d’Etat du 21 au 22 mai, à l’invitation du président Khuresukh Ukhnaa. Il s’agit d’une visite historique, la première visite d’un président français en Mongolie
— La France en Mongolie 🇫🇷🇲🇳 (@France_Mongolie) May 16, 2023
🇫🇷🇲🇳 https://t.co/112luvNeQ8
His wish may be fulfilled, as Macron's trip follows his visit to the G7 Hiroshima summit, which sees the world's seven most industrialised nations closing a front against Russia and China, the two countries that enclose Mongolia.
According to French weekly Le Point, quoting a source close to Macron, France regards this visit as an important "geostrategic" issue.
The source described Mongolia as having "a liberal model of government, holding elections ... and seeking to diversify its partnerships to become better able to deal with Russia and China".
Presence of uranium
Possibly more important than maintaining a democratic foothold between Russia and China, is the presence of uranium in Mongolia.
Sebastien Suren, France's ambassador to Mongolia, in an interview with The Diplomat, said Mongolia ranked in the world's top countries with uranium deposits. France, which belongs to the world's leading nuclear energy producers, was ready to go further and support Mongolia.
When excavation begins, the uranium will be exported to one of the few facilities in the world that can manufacture fuel out of the mineral Suren said, adding that French companies were the only ones in the world able to handle the cycle of nuclear fuel, including managing waste and spent fuel.
This meant they would be an obvious choice for cooperation. Not only could this help decrease Mongolia's 90 percent dependency on coal, it could also provide crucial fuel for France's own reactors.
Macron will fly to Ulaanbaatar on Sunday to have dinner with Khurelsukh.
He will also visit the Genghis Khan Museum, dedicated to the great Mongol conqueror of the 13th century, which will lend a part of its collection to the History Museum of Nantes, France, for an exhibition scheduled in October.
