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The Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF) will participate in the annual Cobra Gold military exercises alongside the United States, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines in April and May in Thailand. The U.S.-led maneuvers will concentrate on firefighting, emergency rescue operations and counterterrorism training. Mongolia's participation is the latest manifestation of the strategic alliance that has evolved quickly between Ulaanbaatar and Washington in recent years.
Stratfor reported the U.S. strategic opportunity in Mongolia in May 2000. Subsequently, the relationship between the world's only superpower and the Central Asian state has developed into a working military partnership. Mongolia is neither an economic nor a military powerhouse, but it is geographically priceless. Sharing a 2,800-mile border with China and a 2,100-mile border with Russia, the country is wedged between two of the most important geopolitical entities in the world -- elevating Mongolia from the status of a pastoral backwater to a player with a seat at the table.
Washington has actively courted Mongolia since it began to move away from Moscow's sphere of influence toward the end of the Cold War. The United States has fostered Mongolia's transition from a Soviet satellite to a democratic, free-market-oriented state -- providing nearly $200 million in economic and military aid since establishing diplomatic relations in 1987. The United States has become Mongolia's second-largest trading partner after China, with exports to the United States totaling nearly $21 million and imports from the United States totaling $183.5 million in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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