Mongolia Wrestles With Dinosaurs, NATO and Politics

Squeezed between geopolitical giants Russia and China, Mongolia has long struggled for independence and visibility.

Two events on Sunday promise to raise the global profile of the country of just 2.8 million people: the planned sale in New York of a stunning skeleton of Tyrannosaur bataar, an Asian cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex; and a meeting in Chicago of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Mongolia will attend as a formal, though not full, partner, for the first time.

The events are freighted with very different emotions.

Mongolia has protested the planned sale of the nearly intact dinosaur skeleton – its teeth alone are six inches (15 centimeters) long – by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

The origins of the eight-foot-high, 24-foot-long (2.4 meters high, 7.3-meters-long) raptor is unclear but there are suspicions it came from Mongolia, as this statement from President Elbegdorj Tsakhia shows.

In promotional material, the auction house mentioned the dinosaur inhabited the Gobi Desert, long ago, and in his statement, President Elbegdorj noted that, saying if the skeleton originated in Mongolia, the auction was illegal and “the fossil must be returned to Mongolia.” He called on the auctioneers to immediately disclose its origins.

David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage Auctions, told Bloomberg Business News that the fossil was initially exported to Japan and then to England, from where it entered the U.S. legally and was prepared.

The skeleton is on public display today at Center 548 (548 W. 22nd Street,) New York.

From dinosaurs to a more modern kind of might: President Elbegdorj is due to attend NATO’s annual meeting in Chicago on Sunday, representing a freshly minted partnership with the alliance.

NATO’s Web site reports here on Mongolia’s participation in the new “Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme” (Mongolia is the first country to have formal relations with NATO on this basis):

Since 2005, Mongolia has collaborated with NATO, in Kosovo and Afghanistan, as a way to counter the enormous power of neighbors China and Russia, neither of which are NATO members. Just over 1,300 Mongolian soldiers have served alongside NATO- or American-led forces, NATO said.

Dubbed the “Third Neighbor” policy, Chinese analysts are following the balancing act closely.

Huo Wen, a Mongolia-based reporter for the state-run People’s Daily, wrote that NATO was “roping in” Mongolia as an “important part of its eastwards expansion strategy.” In the article, he wrote:

“Especially against the background of the United States ‘return to Asia’ strategy, Mongolia’s position within NATO’s strategy becomes increasingly important.”

The China Daily noted the development too, adopting a low-key tone.

As if all that weren’t enough, the country is embroiled in a politics-and-corruption scandal that some fear endangers Mongolian democracy, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Genghis Democracies.”

For a Mongolian take on some detail of the corruption allegations rocking politics, follow a report in The UB Post and another by Reuters.

Perhaps as part of maneuvering for elections set for June 28, the current president and his popular predecessor, Nambaryn Enkhbayar, are locked in an intense rivalry that may have led to Mr. Enkhbayar’s recent jailing on corruption charges, Bloomberg Business News reported.

Mr. Enkhbayar was granted bail on Monday and will remain hospitalized after refusing water for 10 days to protest his detention. He and his family have said his arrest last month, on charges dating as far back as 2000, was an attempt by the government to keep him from taking part in the elections, Bloomberg reported.

The vote is likely to be contentious. At stake is management of a massive resource boom that has seen Mongolia’s economy surge 16.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012, after very fast growth in 2011.

Mongolia is debating how to retain control of its wealth in the face of Chinese interest – China currently accounts for more than 80 percent of its import and export trade – and interest from foreign mining companies, according to a report from Bloomberg.

“Our struggle to get political freedom was a long one and we cherish that. We will not let foreign government-owned entities control strategic assets in Mongolia,” Vice Finance Minister Ganhuyag Chulu.