By Julian Dierkes
Pres. Khurelsukh’s speeches at the UN General Assembly have caught my eyes in recent years, in part because the UN has been the site of an at least symbolic battle between Russian President V Putin and the world over his aggression against Ukraine. Mongolia is caught up in that via its relations with Russia and China.
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Pres Khurelsukh has continued his attendance streak to participate in the 80th general assembly, delivering his speech on Sept 23. A full text (“check against delivery”) is also available as a PDF.
Themes
The UN
Obviously, the UN has featured prominently in all of Khurelsukh’s speeches, as it did in Pres. Elbegdorj’ speeches, while Pres. Battulga was not so keen on attending/speaking.
And, on the 80th anniversary of the UN, how appropriate that Mongolia’s role in and connection to the UN featured prominently.
Following the historical introduction to the speech, Khurelsukh moved directly to Mongolia’s UN links, emphasizing peacekeeping in particular, as he should. He emphasized Mongolia’s efforts regarding the incorporation of women into peacekeeping troops pointing to their proportion in Mongolian forces as 14%.
The SDGs were the next item to be emphasized, including a reference to the Awaza Program of Action which I was not aware of. As this Program is focused on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), Khurelsukh returned to a focus that also appeared in his 2024 speech. The Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries had been set up in Ulaanbaatar more than 15 years ago as one of the most tangible links to the UN, but my sense is that there has not been a lot of action around the cooperation between landlocked countries recently.
The next UN touchpoint was the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention to Combat Desertification which Mongolia will be hosting next August.
Mongolian Culture
Of course, the Great Khaan cannot be missing from a speech like this. Here, he shows up right in the second full paragraph, as does the pax mongolica as a quasi-prototype. I am not a historian, but some of this language here, including “a period of remarkable progress and flourishing for humankind”, seems a bit hagiographic, but perhaps that is just sour European/conquered grapes…
Mongolian culture and heritage was generally a strong theme. The section that followed mention of Landlocked Developing Countries thus referred to that particular relationship with nature that Mongolians have and explicitly referred to the adoption of July 11 as World Horse Day by the UN in the context of the mid-summer celebration of Naadam.
Gender
Another section of the speech focused on women. Some of the highlights here were women peacekeepers, but also the World Women Entrepreneurs’ Forum and the increase of female representation in last year’s parliamentary election.
Absence
Whereas previous speeches by Khurelsukh had contained oblique references to Russian aggression or at least elements that could be read as such, there did not seem any kind of specific reference to the Ukraine conflict even in phrases surrounding the multilateral cooperation that the UN is focused on.
