Geostrategic location of Mongolia between two giant neighbors, Russia and China, and Ulaanbaatar's experience of taking side for one against the other have eventually produced the doctrine of balanced relationship stated in National Security Concept of Mongolia adopted in 1994 (200712).
Independence and sovereignty of Mongolia exist on the balance of power between Russia and China.
Distortion of this balance may endanger its independence. Due to Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia has temporarily missed a strong government that could keep the balance against China, the balance that has existed since the 17th century. As a result, in 1919 China invaded and destroyed Mongolian autonomy, which was under Russian protectorate. Soviet government has reestablished this balance soon after its consolidation, and Mongolia has again gained its de facto independence from China in 1921. After the WWII, Soviet power has increasingly emerged as a world power shifting the balance in favor of Moscow. This shift has eventually led Mongolia to align with the northern neighbor against the southern, turning Mongolian territory as the first frontline of "a potential battlefield of the two red giants (Galsanjamts.S 1999, 14)"
Primary goal of Mongolia's security policy, therefore, should aim to strengthen the balance of power between the two neighbors, on which its independence is dangling. Neither distortion or shifting the balance greatly in favor of one is unwilling for Ulaanbaatar since it gives a huge geopolitical advantage to one over the other. Aligning with one of them brings the country to on the frontline of a battlefield as the experience of the Cold War has evidently demonstrated. Balanced relationship, therefore, is a product of Mongolia's historic lessons and reflection of its inherent strategy.
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