Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday, meeting with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh to commemorate a Russia-Mongolia military victory over Japan’s army in 1939 and sign agreements on fuel and energy, road transportation, and railway development.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023. Mongolia, an ICC member since 2003, chose to ignore the warrant, to the outrage of the Ukrainian government and some human rights organizations.
This is Putin’s first trip to an ICC country since the warrant was issued. The Russian president has, in the meantime, visited China, North Korea, and Vietnam.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry called Mongolia's decision "a heavy blow to ICC and the international criminal justice system.” On the day of Putin’s visit, Russia fired missiles at a Ukrainian military academy and hospital in the central-eastern city of Poltava, killing 51 people and injuring 200 more.
Mongolia’s many ‘third neighbours’
Landlocked Mongolia is four times the size of Japan, but is home to only 3.4 million people. Its only neighbours, China and Russia, are global powers, and the country relies heavily on Russia for oil and electricity.
In a statement to Politico, the Mongolian government explained its decision not to arrest Putin: “Mongolia imports 95 per cent of its petroleum products and over 20 per cent of electricity from our immediate neighbourhood, which have previously suffered interruption for technical reasons. This supply is critical to ensure our existence and that of our people.”
Canada and Mongolia — linked by proximity to superpowers, occasionally frigid winters, and vast expanses — have inched ever closer over the past year. In 2023, Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh travelled to Ottawa in what was the first visit by a Mongolian foreign minister to Canada in 25 years, reaffirming that Canada stood “as one of [Mongolia’s] key ‘third neighbours’ and an important partner in North America.”
