U.S. defense chief takes aim at China
Visit seeks to reinforce Mongolia relationship
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — With one hand resting on the mane of a Mongolian horse, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper invoked the name of one of America’s great soldiers as he sought to strengthen the military bonds between the U.S. and this landlocked democracy sandwiched between Russia and China.
“I’d like to name this fine-looking horse Marshall, after Gen. George Marshall,” Esper said Thursday as he was presented with a 7-year-old buckskin during a time-honored traditional ceremony at Mongolia’s Ministry of Defense.
Esper’s stop in Ulaanbaatar, the third U.S. engagement with Mongolia in recent weeks, underscored its key role in America’s new defense strategy, which lists China and Russia as priority competitors.
With just over 3 million people spread over an area twice the size of Texas, Mongolia has worked to maintain its independence from Beijing and Moscow by increasing its ties to other world powers, including the U.S. It describes the U.S. as a “third neighbor.”
Esper has made it clear throughout his weeklong travel across the Asia Pacific that countering China’s aggressive activities in the region is an administration priority.
The activities, he said, include Beijing’s militarization of manmade islands in the South China Sea, efforts to use predatory economics and debt for sovereignty deals, and a campaign to promote the state-sponsored theft of other nations’ intellectual property.
His stop in Mongolia was less than 24 hours long, but he told his defense counterpart, Nyamaagiin Enkhbold, that it gives him the “opportunity to look at different ways we can further strengthen the ties” between the two nations.