News that Mongolia has chosen China’s Shenhua, the US mining group Peabody and a Russian-led consortium to develop Tavan Tolgoi – one of the world’s largest unexplored coal reserves – should come as no surprise to followers of the landlocked Asian country.
Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia has long sought to avoid alienating either of these great powers, even as it tries to play them off against eachother. At the same time it has sought “a third neighbour” policy by reaching out to the US. Ulan Bator’s decision to split a prize asset three ways between US, Chinese and Russian companies is a shrewd political manoeuvre in face of hard geopolitical realities.
So what is at stake?
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