Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-free status goes back to the early 1990s, when Mongolia’s President P. Ochirbat in his address to the 47th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 1992 announced that Mongolia declared its territory a nuclear-weapon-free zone and that it would work towards the international recognition of that status.
As international support for Mongolia’s NWFS grew stronger, the UN General Assembly in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 respectively, adopted resolutions 53/77D, 55/33S, 57/67, 59/73 and 61/87 on Mongolia’s International Security and Nuclear-Weapon-Free Status.

On 3 February 2000, pursuant to the UN GA resolution the State Great Hural (Mongolian Parliament) adopted the Law on Mongolia’s Nuclear-Weapon-Free Status, a development which was welcomed and supported by the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries at its Ministerial Conference in April 2000 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and subsequent meetings, as a concrete contribution to the international efforts to strengthen the non-proliferation regime. The legislation was also welcomed by the UN Secretary-General. The Law forbids any individual, legal person, or any foreign State to: a) “develop, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or have control over nuclear weapons” (Article 4.1.1); b) “station or transport nuclear weapons by any means” (Article 4.1.2); and c) ”test or use nuclear weapons” (Article 4.1.3); d) “dump or dispose nuclear-weapons-grade radioactive material or nuclear waste” (Article 4.1.4). Additionally, “the competent authority of Mongolia shall have the right to gather information, halt, detain and search any suspected aircraft, train, vehicle, individual or group of persons” (Article 6.2). As such, the law is incontestably a milestone, as it institutionalizes our status at the national level.

Following the adoption of the Law on NWFS in 2000, there have been several concerted initiatives to advance Mongolia’s NWFS at both national and international levels. In particular, consultations with the five nuclear-weapon States produced a concrete outcome: during the 55th session of the UN General Assembly on 27 October 2000, France, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America jointly issued a Statement on security assurances in connection with Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-free status (see UN document A/55/530-S/2000/1052). In the statement the P5 “reaffirmed their commitment to seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to Mongolia, as a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the NPT, in accordance with the provisions of Security Council resolution 984 (1995) of 11 April 1995, if Mongolia should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”. They also “reaffirmed, in case of Mongolia, their respective unilateral negative security assurance as stated in their declarations issued on 5 and 6 April 1995 and referred to in Security Council resolution 984 (1995) of 11 April 1995”. In the same statement the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation “recalled and confirmed the legally binding commitments undertaken by them with respect to Mongolia through the conclusion of bilateral treaties with Mongolia regarding these matters”. Notably, continued references to our nuclear-weapon-free status in both bilateral and multilateral international instruments serve as a tangible indication of its growing international recognition. Support for Mongolia’s NWFS was reflected in the following multilateral instruments:

• Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons;
  
• Final Document of the XIII Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Cartagena, from 8-9 April 2000;
  
• Chairman’s Statement at the 7th Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Bangkok, 27 July 2000;
  
• Chairman’s Statement at the 8th Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Hanoi, 25 July 2001;
  
• Final Communiqué of the Meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Heads of Delegation of the Non-Aligned Movement during the 56th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations held in New York on 14 November 2001;
  
• Communiqué of the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Durban, South Africa, on 29 April 2002;
  
• Declaration of the Heads of the Member State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, issued in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, on 7 June 2002;
  
• Chairman’s Statement at the 9th Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Bandar Seri Begawan, 31 July 2002;
  
• Final Document of the XIII Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Kuala Lumpur from 24-25 February 2003;
  
• “Tokyo Agenda”: Towards Creation of a Regional Mechanism for Peace”, 2 February, 2005;
  
• Hiroshima Declaration adopted by the 5th Conference of IPPNW-North Asia Region, 21 August, 2005;
  
• Resolution CG/Res.481of the XIX Regular Session of the General Conference OPANAL held in Santiago from 7-8 November, 2005;
  
• Final Document of the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Putrajaya, Malaysia, from 27-30 May, 2006;
  
• Final Document of the 14th Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Havana, Cuba, from 11 to 16 September 2006.
  Most recently, Declaration for the Conference of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones held in Tlatelolco, Mexico from 26-28 April 2005 proclaimed “recognition and full support of Mongolia’s nuclear-weapon-free status”. There have also been a number of high level bilateral meetings’ outcome documents in which support for our nuclear-weapon-free status has been expressed, including:
  
• The Ulaanbaatar Declaration issued upon the official visit of Mr. V. V. Putin, President of the Russian Federation, to Mongolia on 13 and 14 November 2000;
  
• Joint Statement on Bilateral and Regional Cooperation between Mongolia and the United States of America, Ulaanbaatar, 31 January 2004;
  
• Joint Statement between Mongolia and the United States of America, Washington, 15 July 2004;
  
• Joint Statement between Mongolia and China, Beijing, 6 July 2004;
  
• Joint Statement between Mongolia and India, Deli, 19 January 2004;
  
• Joint Statement between Mongolia and Canada, 21 October, 2004;
  
• Joint Statement between Mongolia and China, Beijing, 29 November 2005;
  
• Joint Statement between Mongolia and Republic of Korea, 9 May, 2006;
  
• Joint Press Statement between Mongolia and Thailand, 17-19 August, 2006;
  
• The Moscow Declaration, 8 December 2006. Beyond the issue of Mongolia’s NWFS, the respective GA resolutions cover several other dimensions, as demonstrated by their call on UN member states to “continue to cooperate with Mongolia in talking the necessary measures to consolidate and strengthen Mongolia’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the inviolability of its borders, its independent foreign policy, its economic security, and its ecological balance, as well as its nuclear-weapon-free status”. Consequently, continued heavy emphasis is placed on non-nuclear aspects of Mongolia’s international security.

As a follow-up to the first contacts with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China made in 2002, in 2007 the Mongolian side elaborated a draft treaty between China, Russia and Mongolia on the latter’s nuclear-weapon-free status. The draft was based on the draft basic elements of the treaty that Mongolia had presented to its neighbors in early 2002 and the comments that it received from the two neighbors. The draft in principle reflects the basic provisions that are found in international treaties establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones as well as the specific circumstances of Mongolia as bordering only on two officially recognized nuclear-weapon States. The draft clearly spells out the obligations of Mongolia as well as possible commitments of its two neighbors. The draft also deals with such issues as cooperation in strengthening the status, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, physical protection of nuclear material, notification of nuclear-related activities and early warning in case of nuclear accident. Like in the case of traditional zones, the draft also deals with control and verification issues without necessarily setting up a standing mechanism. The draft treaty also has a draft protocol, which could be signed by the other three recognized nuclear-weapon States. Since Mongolia is situated between two nuclear-weapon States, there is no need for negative security assurances by the other three nuclear-weapon states. Instead they are asked to respect the treaty and contribute to its full implementation.

The text of this draft treaty and its protocol have been presented in September 2007 to China’s and Russia’s Ambassadors in Mongolia together with a brief memorandum on the history of the issue. In the first half of 2008 the Mongolian side will follow-up on the draft and conduct consultations with its immediate neighbors.

Relevant Mongolian authorities are also undertaking monitoring of the implementation of part two of the Law of Mongolia on its nuclear-weapon-free status, which deals with the issues of national and international verification. The results of monitoring will be communicated soon to the Government of Mongolia as well as to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.