By Julian Dierkes, Alexander Morrow and Anshika Srivastava
In 2021, Pres. U Khurelsukh spoke at the UN General Assembly for the first time as president. He has returned every year since then. Unlike his immediate predecessor, Kh Battulga, he is thus continuing Mongolia’s internationalist agenda and giving the United Nations a prominent role in that. This dedication to participation in global dialogues also reinforces the steady stream of world leaders who have been visiting Mongolia over the last two years.
Obviously, the address to the General Assembly is a tightly-scripted occasion with only 5 minutes allotted to speakers. There are a lot of speakers in this sequence and many of them can be drowned out in the crowd, even for dedicated UN-watchers. However, for the 79th General Assembly, Pres. Khurelukh was handed a relatively prominent spot. He opened the debate on the second day as the first speaker in the 9h block and was closely followed by Ukrainian Pres V Zelensky whose address is likely to attract attention.
Elements in the Speech
Khurelsukh’s speech included some familiar touchpoints, but also included some announcements. As always on UN occasions, Mongolia’s nuclear-free status was emphasized.
But, Pres Khurelsukh opened with a reference to a sculpture entitled, “Consciousness” “by a renowned Mongolian artist”, Ochirbold A, that had been gifted by the government of Mongolia in 2017.
Peaceful Resolutions to Conflict
As Pres. Khurelsukh had done in his 2022 address, he spoke about the importance of peaceful resolutions to conflict in general terms. He did not mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine explicitly and that invasion is not the only conflict that his words could be applied to, but he did emphasize territorial integrity which might be especially application to the case of an invasion.
“my country upholds the principles of the UN Charter, particularly the commitment to refrain from using force against the territorial integrity and political independence of any state. In addressing disagreements and conflicts, we call upon countries and nations around the world to prioritize diplomatic dialogue over confrontation, promote unity over hostility, and pursue collective goals rather than 3 divisiveness in order to consistently cooperate in strengthening international peace and security.” (https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/79/mn_en.pdf)
Coming especially only weeks after Pres. V Putin’s visit to Ulaanbaatar which had generated international attention as the government of Mongolia did not arrest Putin on his outstanding ICC warrant, this was another effort at walking the fine line between outraged by Russian aggression and not being able to say so directly due to the hold that Russia has over Mongolia’s (energy) security.
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping was raised as a particularly important role played by Mongolia in supporting international peace and security. Highlighting the sacrifices made by the 4,300 UN Blue Helmets who have given their lives in the pursuit of peace, Khurelsukh emphasized the importance of peacekeeping to a world experiencing an apparent increase in armed conflict and terrorism. His speech also noted with some pride the outsized contribution of Mongolia to the personnel of UN peacekeeping operations over the past twenty years given the country’s small population. At the same time, his speech took the opportunity to outline steps that Mongolia would be taking prospectively to further advance the cause of UN peacekeeping. These were a reaffirmation of Mongolia’s commitment to increase the participation of women in United Nations peacekeeping, as well as a pilot project to better support peacekeepers and their families.
Climate Change
Despite the speech’s acknowledgement of rising interstate war and armed conflict Khurelsukh did not neglect the importance of climate change and other non-traditional sources of insecurity in his remarks. Rather, emphasizing that climate change was an existential risk to humanity, President Khurelsukh took the opportunity to shine a spotlight on a number of national efforts that the Mongolian government was undertaking to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change within the auspice of the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to these efforts, in line with his overall emphasis on multilateral engagement through UN bodies and forums, Khurelsukh brought attention to numerous diplomatic initiatives hosted by Mongolia to combat the negative effects of climate change. This included Mongolia’s plan to host the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and a declaration that the year 2026 would be the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
Landlocked Developing Countries
Dovetailing with these initiatives, Khurelsukh also highlighted efforts to engage diplomatically with fellow Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) through the United Nations. Affirming his commitment to raise the collective profile of LDDCs on the world stage, Khurelsukh brought particular attention to the Third UN Conference on LDDCs and urged the whole international community to recommit to setting goals and guidelines for advancing the development prospects of LDCCs.
Mongolian Queens
In his speech, Pres. Khurelsukh spoke about gender equality, women’s rights, and the role of women in various sectors of society by drawing attention on Mongolia’s commitment to women empowerment and efforts to eliminate barriers to gender equality. Khurelsukh took an interesting approach with the mention of “Mongolian Queens” to highlight the state’s culture that has long witnessed, honoured, and valued the strategic role women have played in shaping the social fabric and governance of the state over centuries. Tracing history back to the empire of Chinggis Khaan, Mongolia had consorts, daughters, and even captives (Fatima) hold positions that enabled them to play a strategic role in diplomacy, territorial administration, and expansion of the empire.
Today, Mongolia’s commitment to gender equality and women empowerment has taken the shape of proactively recognizing the integral role women play in society and supporting a feminist take on state leadership, diplomacy, international peace, and sustainable development, at least according to Khurelsukh. In the June 2024 Mongolian Parliamentary elections, 32 female candidates stepped in as elected members of parliament thereby boosting female representation in parliament up to 25.4%. This increase in representation can be linked primarily to the adoption of a “zipper” system for party lists for proportional representation where female and male candidates have to alternate.
Khurelsukh spoke about Mongolia hosting the 2024 World Women’s Forum under the “Towards a Green Future” theme that highlighted the importance of women leadership in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda and resulted in the “Ulaanbaatar Declaration: Towards a Sustainable Future”. However, while the state is trailblazing the path to women empowerment with such systemic supports & tools, it would be premature to say that a glass ceiling is no longer imposed on women in Mongolia who aspire for leadership in politics and business. Corruption and patriarchy continue to be a very prevalent systemic issue within the Mongolian government, we see that women aspiring for political leadership remain susceptible to smear campaigns, traditional mindsets, gender stereotypes, and violence which pushes many to maintain distance or disengage from politics.
Khurelsukh ended his speech with, “May the Eternal Blue Sky bless us with peace throughout the world.” That is certainly a wish that is easy to support for any audience, but the speech once again tried to stake out that difficult territory for Mongolia to emphasize peace while being wedged between two neighbours who do not always seem to have peaceful attentions. The speech also reiterated Mongolia’s commitment to many UN-led initiatives and its participation in those.
About A Srivastava and A Morrow
Anshika Srivastava is a graduate student in the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs specializing in Global Governance & Security. Anshika holds a Bachelor’s in Global & International Studies, specialization in Global Politics from Carleton University. Her interest areas include foreign policy, national security & defense studies.
Alexander Morrow is a graduate student in the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. He has received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on the intersection between geopolitics and the evolution of political institutions in the Indo-Pacific region.
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