Category Archives: Canada

Friendship Medal

By Julian Dierkes I was awarded a Friendship Medal by Foreign Minister B Battsetseg at a reception commemorating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Mongolia, and also the announcement of an upgrade of the bilateral relationship to … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Reflection, Research on Mongolia | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Canada and Mongolia – The Enhanced Development Partnership that Never Was

By Stephen Brown In the early 2010s, the Canadian government, under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, developed a special interest in Mongolia. In 2014, after a flurry of diplomatic visits, Canada designated Mongolia a “country of focus” for its development … Continue reading

Posted in Bilateral Aid, Canada, CIRDI, Development, International Relations, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Public Policy, Research on Mongolia, Stephen Brown | 3 Comments

Guest Post: Decoding an Asian Diaspora

By Anoushka Chandarana, Anthony Coompson, Jemimah Ogundele, and Narayanan (Hari) GL Currently, there are around 34,000 Mongolian-origin people living in Canada and the U.S., around half of whom have lived there for over five years. Issues faced by this small, … Continue reading

Posted in Anoushka Chandarana, Anthony Coompson, Canada, Demography, Diaspora, Jemimah Ogundele, Mongolia and ..., Mongolian Diaspora, Narayanan GL, United States | Leave a comment

Guest Post: A BIT of Project Finance Arbitrage in Mongolia

By Kinnari Bhatt As Jennifer Lander observed last week, RIO is getting out the big guns. My new book – Concessionaires, Financiers and Communities: Implementing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Land in Transnational Development Projects, shows how investors like RIO use … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Kinnari Bhatt, Law, Mining, Mining Governance, Mongolia and ..., Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Research on Mongolia, Taxes | Leave a comment

Embassies in Ulaanbaatar on Social Media

By Julian Dierkes A recent post about the Twitter accounts of foreign embassies in Ulaanbaatar proved to be more popular than I had anticipated, so I’ll turn that into a blog post below. As far as I can tell, nine … Continue reading

Posted in Australia, Canada, Digital Diplomacy, EU, Foreign Policy, Germany, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and ..., Russia, Turkey, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

Study Tours, Policy Implementation and Necessary Context

By Julian Dierkes Over the years I have been – mostly peripherally, though not for lack of trying – involved in various attempts to describe good practices from other countries to Mongolian policy makers in the hopes of seeing elements … Continue reading

Posted in Bilateral Aid, Canada, Development, Environment, Public Policy, Public Service | Tagged | 1 Comment

The UB Dialogue at the Crossroads

By Mendee Jargalsaikhan The designation of Singapore for the historic summit of US President Donald Trump and DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-Un probably relieved Mongolian government officials, security personnel, and capital city residents. It would not add any financial pressures like … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Foreign Policy, Germany, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, Ulaanbaatar Dialogue, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

Elevate Ulaanbaatar Dialogue

OPINION By Julian Dierkes and Mendee Jargalsaikhan Mongolia is in a good position to contribute to renewed dialogue with North Korea in order to avert confrontations and, in the long run, lead to more constructive interactions. In an eventful Spring … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, China, Germany, International Relations, Japan, Mongolia and ..., North Korea, Russia, South Korea, Ulaanbaatar, Ulaanbaatar Dialogue, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

UB Dialogue Initiatives from the 1970s to 90s

by Mendee Jargalsaikhan & Julian Dierkes According to global speculation, Ulaanbaatar is still under consideration as a location for the envisioned meeting between US Pres Trump and DPRK Chairman Kim, Mongolia’s desire to be a part of a broader Asia … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Foreign Policy, International Cooperation Fund, Ulaanbaatar Dialogue | Tagged | Leave a comment

Mongolian Mining Forum at PDAC 2018

By Bulgan B Mongolia has made a tradition of sending a delegation to PDAC every year in the last 8 years (at least this is as far as I recall).  Although, the odds of the same minister of mining attending … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Erdenes Mongol, Mining, Mining, Sovereign Wealth Fund | Tagged | 1 Comment

SOMO Report “Mining Taxes”

By Julian Dierkes The Dutch Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) published a report focused on a whole list of issues related to financial and governance structures for the Oyu Tolgoi project. The report was written by SOMO’s Vincent Kiezebrink and … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Corruption, EU, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, International Relations, JD Mining Governance, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Public Policy, Taxes | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Agreement between Canada and Mongolia for the Promotion and Protection of Investments – a Glance at Its Nature, Significance and Features

By Bajar Scharaw On 8 September 2016, Canada and Mongolia signed an international Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments (the Canada-Mongolia Investment Agreement). The Agreement entered into force on 24 February 2017 and created legally-binding obligations for both … Continue reading

Posted in Bajar Scharaw, Canada, Foreign Investment, Foreign Policy, International Agreements, Law, Trade | 2 Comments

Risking Foreign Relations out of (Partisan) Pettiness

By Julian Dierkes November is shaping up to be a very busy month of diplomacy across Asia, at least from a North American perspective. It is an odd time for the Mongolian president to seemingly hold some of Mongolia’s most … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Foreign Policy, Germany, Japan, Mongolia and ..., Security Apparatus, South Korea, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

Mongolian Presence in Germany

By Julian Dierkes I spent the past year on a research leave from the University of British Columbia in Berlin, Germany, at the Free University’s Graduate School of East Asian Studies. I found Mongolia to be much more visible in … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Cinema, Curios, Diaspora, Germany, Mongolian Diaspora, Pop Culture | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: CIRDI Workshop Mongolian Young Professionals Shining

By Delgermaa B Short reflection on the capacity building training organized on June 19-23, 2017, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Mongolian Young Professional are Shining Just few weeks ago I had a chance to participate in the capacity building training organized by the … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, CIRDI, Delgermaa Boldbaatar, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy | Leave a comment