Mongolia, Republic of Korea, United States Forge Trilateral Alliance in Ulaanbaatar Summit

In order to promote and strengthen shared values and common interests, the Governments of Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, and the United States held their first trilateral meeting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on May 30, 2023.

The inaugural trilateral meeting between Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, and the United States was led by Byambasuren Guntevsuren, Director-General of the Department of Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia; Yong-Jun Choi, Director-General for Northeast Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea; and Mark Lambert, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

During the meeting, the delegates exchanged views on a broad range of issues of mutual interest, including regional and multilateral cooperation, political and security partnership, and strengthening mutually beneficial economic ties.

Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, and the United States emphasized the importance of international law, including the United Nations Charter and the principles of sovereign equality, respect for the independence and territorial integrity of states, promotion of and respect for human rights, and prohibition of the threat or use of force. To this end, the three sides expressed concern over the suffering of the Ukrainian people. The three sides also conveyed deep concern about the risk of nuclear weapons use and called on all states to affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, and the United States expressed their respective views regarding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) continued development of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, including the unprecedented number of ballistic missiles launches since the beginning of 2022. All sides underlined the necessity of resuming dialogue with the DPRK and called on the DPRK to fully comply with its obligations under relevant UN Security Council resolutions. All sides also emphasized the importance of the international community fully implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Mongolia and the United States expressed support for the goal of the Republic of Korea’s “Audacious Initiative” for a denuclearized, peaceful and prosperous Korean Peninsula.

All three governments supported the goals of the 8th International Conference of the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security, to be held June 15-16, 2023, in Ulaanbaatar.

The three sides shared their respective visions for regional development, including for a free and open Indo-Pacific, and exchanged views on collective efforts towards ensuring a prosperous and peaceful future.

The three sides exchanged views on opportunities to develop the trilateral partnership in the areas of economic development, support to UN peacekeeping operations, law enforcement and anti-corruption cooperation. All sides emphasized their desire to deepen economic partnership through enhanced cooperation on energy security and mineral resources, combating climate change, transportation and supply chains, food security, intellectual property rights, as well as through increased trade and investment opportunities. The three sides decided to continue discussions to this end at various levels, including a high-level dialogue focused on Mongolia’s role in global mineral resources supply chains.

Mongolia shared its long-term developmental and post-pandemic recovery policy priorities and objectives, such as Vision-2050 and New Recovery Policy, and projects related to these policies. The Mongolian side invited the Governments of the United States and the Republic of Korea, as well as the U.S. and ROK private sectors, to invest in Mongolia’s development projects to advance mutually beneficial economic partnership. The three sides discussed opportunities to use existing and new tools for trilateral economic and investment cooperation.

The Government of Mongolia expressed its willingness to contribute to the strengthening of global supply chains for the clean energy transition and invited the Governments of the United States and the Republic of Korea to hold a separate trilateral meeting on mineral resources and related issues in Ulaanbaatar later in 2023.

The three sides expressed willingness to hold the Mongolia – Republic of Korea –United States trilateral meeting regularly on a rotating basis in each of the countries.