{"id":5171,"date":"2017-08-04T01:31:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T08:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/?p=5171"},"modified":"2017-07-31T03:28:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T10:28:56","slug":"guest-post-kazakh-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/2017\/guest-post-kazakh-expo\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Missing at the Kazakh Expo Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

By D\u00e9nes J\u00e4ger<\/em><\/p>\n

The Vatican, Yemen, Antigua and Barbuda are only three of over 100 states participating in this year\u2018s Expo in Astana Kazakhstan. Even though the concept of an international exposition seems to be a little outdated in a globalized world, the Expo can be understood as a canvas of the host country\u2018s international relations. This is especially true when it takes place in Astana, where president Nursultan Nazarbayev uses every opportunity to draw attention to the \u201cnew Kazakhstan\u201c on a global stage. While reporting from the Expo-Plaza for several days, I noticed that pavilions of Russia, China and Azerbaijan were among the most frequently-visited. Of the neighboring Central Asian countries Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan contribute with their own costly pavilion, while Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have at least stands in the \u201cSilkway Plaza\u201c (oddly, they share the space with Bangladesh, Armenia and Ukraine).<\/p>\n

SCO Pavillon at Expo 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

Yet the only visible Mongolian flag at the exhibition area is inside the equally bizarre pavilion sponsored by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where it hangs next to the banner of Iran and Turkey (see image). So why did Mongolia not join this gathering of friends?<\/p>\n

Flip-flop Expo-Pavilion<\/h2>\n

In December 2015 the Kazakh daily \u201cAstana Times\u201c\u00a0reported that the Mongolian Minister of Energy D Zorig signed a formal agreement to take part in the Expo during a meeting with the Kazakh ambassador<\/a> \u2013 by that time only 20 other countries had officially confirmed their participation. It was highlighted by the Kazakh side that this could encourage talks about further cooperation in energy and infrastructure development as the official theme of the exhibition is \u201cFuture Energy\u201c. But by the beginning of this year the narrative had changed: In an article,\u00a0the Speaker of the Parliament M Enkhbold is quoted, saying that with support of the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mongolia might<\/em> participate in the Expo<\/a>. Six months later the name Mongolia vanished from the official homepage of the Expo. In an organizational environment like Kazakhstan it is not unusual to change plans at short notice, yet Mongolia\u2019s absence does seem a bit peculiar. Enough so to have a quick review of the current state of Kazakh-Mongolian relations.<\/p>\n

No Landing in Ulaanbaatar<\/h2>\n

The latest controversy between the two states was related to the planned construction of the new Kazakh embassy in Ulaanbaatar. So far, no agreement about a location could be obtained. Another strife dates back to spring 2016, when the Kazakh State Airline Air Astana canceled the only connecting flight between the two capitals after the authorities in Mongolia withdrew the permission to land<\/a> without any given grounds. Then again, several bilateral talks between high officials were held in the last years aiming at deeper cooperation in the political and economic sphere. In February, the head of Kazakhstan\u2019s national atomic company Kazatom visited Mongolia to talk about possible joint projects in the nuclear sector, as Kazakhstan is currently planning to diversify its nuclear business and both countries are dealing, or rather not dealing with a similar dependence on their fossil fuels. Astana\u2019s approach to \u201cfuture energy\u201c is closely connected to Russia\u2019s declaration of nuclear energy as a \u201cgreen\u201c energy, which also became manifested in Russia\u2019s contribution to the Expo \u2013 sponsored by Rosatom<\/a>, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation.<\/p>\n

Friends without Benefits<\/h2>\n

Resources are only one of many similar challenges the two countries are facing. Brandon Miliate elaborated on the general nature of the relations between the two countries three years ago on this blog: https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/2014\/why-its-not-about-stans\/<\/a>. He identifies a key issue in the balancing act of being a neighbour to both Russia and China at the same time. Naturally the two superpowers have little interest in a coalition of neighbours and thus try to encourage a certain level of competition. A recent example for this is China\u2019s Belt and Road initiative where Mongolia has to deliberate on whether it wants to keep up its Third Neighbour policy and leave the field to Kazakh entanglement or try to become a logistical hub for China\u2019s ambitions<\/a>. In conclusion Mongolia\u2019s absence at the Expo in Astana does seem to be just one of many incidents over the last years that indicate the two countries\u2019 relationship-status as: it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/h2>\n

D\u00e9nes J\u00e4ger (denes.jaeger@hotmail.com<\/a>) is currently pursuing a Master\u2019s degree at the Central Asia Seminar at Humboldt University in Berlin. Having studied and worked in Turkey and Kyrgyzstan he focuses on Turkish-Central Asian relations in his research and journalistic work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By D\u00e9nes J\u00e4ger The Vatican, Yemen, Antigua and Barbuda are only three of over 100 states participating in this year\u2018s Expo in Astana Kazakhstan. Even though the concept of an international exposition seems to be a little outdated in a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6444,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[983144,8443,4184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-denes-jager","category-foreign-policy","category-kazakhstan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5205,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5171\/revisions\/5205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mongolia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}