French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday made a brief, but symbolic visit to Mongolia, the first by a French president to the nation nestled between China and Russia that is of growing strategic interest in the West.
The French head of state was greeted by a traditional Mongolian guard of honor after landing in the capital, Ulan Bator, following the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
Macron then attended a reception at Sukhbaatar Square, which contains a large statue of Mongolian revolutionary hero Damdin Sukhbaatar and a monument to Genghis Khan.
Photo: AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was the star guest at the G7, where he addressed Western allies and leaders of non-aligned nations such as Brazil and India.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, France has stepped up diplomacy with nations that have not explicitly condemned the war — of which Mongolia is one.
In Ulan Bator, Macron attended a state dinner at the museum of Genghis Khan, named for the 13th-century Mongol conqueror.
The institution is to lend part of its collection to the Nantes History Museum in western France for an exhibition scheduled for October.
“The fact that Mongolia will be on the route back allows us to make this historic first [visit] and gives it a special meaning,” an Elysee Palace source said.
Mongolia was looking to “diversify its partnerships in order to be more robust and able to deal with its large Russian and Chinese neighbors,” the source added.
Paris is seeking to “loosen the constraint exerted on Russia’s neighbors” and open up their choice of options, the source said.
Mongolia can also be part of European efforts to diversify supplies “to guarantee our energy sovereignty,” the source added.
The vast north Asian nation has been the subject of growing interest from the US as part of a strategy to thwart the rise of China. Eighty-six percent of Mongolia’s exports go to China, half of which is coal.
Mongolia has struggled with political instability since its first democratic constitution in 1992.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of