The yuan becomes a protecting asset when geopolitical risks intensify, as the Chinese government commonly remains neutral towards such conflicts, the head of analytics department at Grand Capita, Sergey Kozlovsky, told RT.

“The dynamics of the Chinese market this week has really confirmed the idea of safe haven,” the analyst said. “After a decrease in tensions, investors began to partially fix positions on Chinese securities, returning, for example, to Russian assets, which are more promising after the recent collapse of the ruble and the Russian stock market.”

The Chinese currency is currently one of the most attractive assets among foreign-exchange holdings, according to the head of AMarkets Analysys Department, Artem Deev, who also expects the yuan to become a safe haven.

“After all, the People’s Bank of China has managed to obtain for yuan a status of a reserve asset. Skeptics said that it is not enough to launch the currency into the orbit, it’s vital to support it,” he told RT. “And just several weeks ago, China made another breakthrough, launching national yuan-denominated crude futures and gold futures contracts denominated in yuan.”

The step will reportedly encourage investors to gradually replace dollar reserves with yuan reserves, inevitably bolstering the Chinese currency. According to Deev, this factor is one of the major drivers for the yuan gaining safe haven status.

In 2016, The International Monetary Fund included the Chinese yuan in the Special Drawing Right (SDR) alongside the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the euro, and the British pound. SDR is supplementary foreign-exchange reserve assets that is defined and maintained by the Washington-based organization. The inclusion of the yuan was considered an important step in the integration of the Chinese economy into the global financial system. The yuan is currently number three in the IMF basket, after the dollar and the euro.

General Manager of Ulaanbaatar city T.Gantumur introduced the draft to the Governor’s Council during its meeting.

The draft was worked out by relevant professional organizations with aims to ensure safety of water supply and reduce pollution caused by sewage which has harmful effects on citizens’ health and environment. 144 works are planned to be realized between 2018 and 2021 in the frames of revised program with nine objectives.

The revised program is significant that it is included bigger policy and constructional activities such as integrated solutions for sewage facilities, reusing recycled water released from leather processing plants and waste water treatment plant for power plants and irrigation of urban green spaces.
E.Altanzul

Under the framework of the document, the two sides will work together to improve the quality of communication and information technology services, including digital video and the 4G network for cellphones in Mongolia's border areas.

The two countries also agreed to create a legal environment to mutually operate and monitor radio frequency without interferences from both sides.

The agreement was inked by the communication ministers of the two countries.

The document was signed during the meeting of the Mongolian delegation with the leadership of Uzavtosanoat in Tashkent.

During the talks, representatives of the Nomin Holding Mongolian company and Uzbekistan's Uzavtosanoat concluded a deal worth $10 million for export of dry fruits, fruits and vegetables to Mongolia.

A construction of the service center or ‘Infrastructure center’ is the optimal solution to make engineering infrastructure accessible to households of ger area in Ulaanbaatar city.The infrastructure center will cover 201 households in the 7th khoroo of Chingeltei district. Presently, a planning of the center was completed and it plans to commence a constructional work within this month. It intends to complete construction of the infrastructure center by November of this year.

Moreover, he met with local citizens and introduced the project. Mayor S.Batbold said, “I think that a launching of constructing the service center in ger area is a remarkable work, like revolutionary thing. 200-400 households should voluntarily united to have private houses connected to centralized infrastructure system. We intend to implement this project in 11 locations. Firstly, the service center will be established in four locations. It will ensure citizens to live in a house that costs MNT60 million on average. To do it, households are required to have a same standard house. Most importantly, it needs initiatives and efforts of local citizens.”

This year, the municipal government approved 50 locations where the infrastructure center will be established. It works to implement the project in 100 locations in total until 2020. Thanks to the project implementation, around 20-30 thousand households will be entirely connected to engineering lines. By doing so, soil pollutant sources for 61.3 hectares area will be wiped out. It will also help to safeguard groundwater sources of Ulaanbaatar city, reduce risks of pollution and rehabilitate 439.2 thousand cubic meter soil.

In addition, the project will tackle social and infrastructure service problems of the community that was involved in the project, and will create green areas and landscapes which will improve the living conditions of citizens. About 6800 new jobs will be created based on the infrastructure center.

M.Unurzul

“Re-jigging all of those trade flows is really, really tough. You’ve cut off the US and Europe from its traditional supplier,” Michael Widmer, head of metals markets research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, told Bloomberg.

The crucial plant for Europe is Russia’s RUSAL facility in the Aughinish aluminum refinery in Ireland. The aluminum from the plant is sold to smelters across Europe. “Aughinish is indispensable for the alumina supply of the European market,” WVMetalle said.

Aluminum prices have surged almost 30 percent in the last two weeks to $2,537 – the highest level in seven years. Earlier in an interview with RT, Russia’s aluminum association predicted the same consequences as the German lobbying group did.

“The high price of aluminum, which is the result of the largest player's withdrawal from the market, will slow economic growth and affect the competitiveness of export-oriented European industries like the automotive industry and other transport engineering. Germany could suffer the most,” the association said.

This represents a 45 percent increase in SUV sales as compared to the same period in 2017. The country’s economic recovery is considered to be one of the main factors in the increased demand.

According to MADA, the number of new automobiles imported grew by 35 percent over last year, totaling 732 automobiles. On the other hand, the number of used automobiles imported decreased by 12 percent.

The Mongolian Air Force Command (AFC), a newly separated force of the Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF), requested Airman-to-Airman (A2A) talks with Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) to bring the two air forces closer together and strengthen their skills and relationships.

PACAF holds A2A talks with partner nations to discuss, plan and coordinate goals, objectives and activities for the next three to five years. The talks provide an avenue to develop interoperability, foster military-to-military relations and improve bilateral cooperation. PACAF currently participates in bilateral air force talks with 13 nations.

Maj. Christine Carr, PACAF Mongolia country director, represented PACAF at the LFT and spoke with the Mongolian AFC about the potential for future talks.

“It has been a unique experience to work with the newly separated air force as we work toward common objectives,” Carr said.

The MAF maintains an active role in world affairs focused on national defense, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and peacekeeping operations. In support of the United Nations peacekeeper missions, they have deployed approximately 4,800 personnel in the last 13 years.

“The change [to an independent force] allows the air force to develop in the same manner as air forces of many other countries,” said Mongolian AFC Col. T. Ganbat, chief of operations. “Within a very short period of time, we could develop our relationship with air forces of other countries.”

Developing an air force is one of U.S. Pacific Command’s priorities for greater engagement with Mongolia, and part of the command’s overall goal to assist the Mongolian Armed Forces pursue their defense reform priorities.

“Mongolia endures as a small, yet strong, partner in Northeast Asia and continues to demonstrate staunch support for U.S. regional and global policy objectives,” said Adm. Harry Harris, PACOM commander in his written posture statement Feb. 14, 2018.

PACAF will send another delegation to Mongolia later this spring with the goal of formalizing the A2A Talks and hopefully scheduling the first meeting in 2019.

During her visit, Swaraj will co-chair the 6th round of India-Mongolia Joint Consultative Committee meeting, IMJCC, with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar, covering a range of issues including, inter alia, political, strategic, economic, educational and cultural ties. The last meeting of IMJCC was held in New Delhi in 2016.

During her visit, the Minister will also deliver the keynote address at the Kushok Bakula Birth Centenary Celebrations in Ulaanbaatar commemorating the birth anniversary of Late Venerable Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a highly revered Buddhist leader and monk from Ladakh, India and a former Ambassador of India to Mongolia.

Bakula Rinpoche as the longest serving Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, made seminal contribution to promotion of India-Mongolia ties.