Security

What Happened: For Mongolia, energy security is a multifaceted issue. The country is in the unenviable position of being both economically reliant on energy resource exports – largely coal – and reliant on imported energy sources – largely imported petroleum – to keep its industries running. With Mongolia’s energy and economic security heavily dependent on its two neighbors, China and Russia, the country is in a vulnerable spot.

Our Focus: China alone accounts of 80 percent of Mongolian exports, and over half of those exports involve a single natural resource: coal. Mongolia’s economic security is thus deeply tied to China’s own energy needs, explains analyst Telmen Altanshagai. Meanwhile, Mongolia is “95 percent dependent on imported petroleum products, despite the country having crude oil deposits… Around 90 percent of all imported petroleum products come from Russia, which creates a geopolitical dependency.” Mongolia’s government is aware of these issues, but hasn’t yet tied them together in a coherent energy security policy.

What Comes Next: Telmen Altanshagai notes that Mongolia has two future-oriented energy projects under consideration. The first, the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline that would see Russian gas transit Mongolia en route to China, risks exacerbating existing issues of economic dependence and fossil fuel reliance. Another option would be for Mongolia to go all-in on developing its hydroelectric potential – and pursue becoming an energy exporter to its neighbors in Northeast Asia. Ultimately, Mongolia must transform its “electricity sector from coal-fired to renewables-based, while also shifting Mongolia’s exports from coal to renewable energy,” Altanshagai notes. “To achieve both goals, Mongolia must attract more foreign infrastructure financing.”

INTERVIEW

Dr. Cha Du Hyeogn, lead researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, about the significance of North Korea’s “trash balloons” being sent over the border: “I don’t think the recent provocation is a mere psychological tactic. It’s important to notice a change in North Korea’s behavioral patterns. Up until May of this year, their actions could be interpreted largely as a show-of-force, while the latest attack clearly signifies an escalation.”

Northeast Asia

Mongolians head to the polls on June 28 to elect a new parliament. This election will be particularly closely watched, as it’s the first since constitutional amendments increased the size of Mongolia’s legislature and tweaked the electoral system to include proportional representation. Mongolia’s major parties have fielded an unusually young and diverse slate of candidates, hoping to convince voters they can tackle issues of inequality and corruption.

South Asia

Amid a surge in terrorism and militancy, Pakistan’s government has approved a new counterterrorism operation, dubbed Azm-e-Istehkam. According to Islamabad, it is not a full-fledged military operation but a “multidomain” vision for ensuring stability by implementing the 2014 National Action Plan against terrorism. The announcement came several weeks after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited China, with security high on the agenda.

Southeast Asia

A Philippine court this week dropped the last of three drug cases against Leila de Lima, a long-time critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte, finally liberating her from a seven-year legal ordeal. The former senator was detained in 2017 on three drug charges that she claims were manufactured in a bid to halt her Senate investigation into Duterte’s bloody anti-drug campaign. Since then, the three cases have fallen apart one by one, and de Lima was finally released on bail last November. The dropping of the final case, due to lack of evidence, is a welcome sign of the Philippine judiciary’s independence, but human rights groups have tempered their congratulatory statements with calls for a thorough investigation into what one called a “gross miscarriage of justice.”

Central Asia

A bill that passed Kazakhstan’s parliament would establish a new private gambling industry regulator, dubbed the “Unified Accounting System” (UAS). There’s little clarity in Kazakhstan as to what company will get the rights to control all money market operations, the power to veto participants in the market, and the opportunity to take up to 1.5 percent of all betting transactions. The bill still has to be considered by the Senate and signed into law, but it seems that despite the anti-corruption rhetoric in Kazakhstan, a powerful lobbying force representing the interest of an unknown private company is on the verge of success.

This 2023 photo shows the Bajau community of Bohey Bual off the shore of Pulau Bodgaya, Malaysia. Most if not all of the Bajau families here at some point moved from the Philippines, hence they are considered stateless. Malaysia recently moved to raze such settlements.

Society

A distinctive combination of improvisational singing and music accompaniment in Kyrgyz and Kazakh traditional culture.