The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Mongolia has inaugurated a 10-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in Govi-Altai province.

The new plant, Serven, will provide about 20 million kilowatt-hour energy annually and is estimated to cut 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emission per year during its lifetime. The power plant is financed by ADB’s Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector Project which supports 41-megawatts of distributed renewable energy systems through subprojects that will supply clean electricity and heat in the less-developed region of western Mongolia.

“About 10% of our country's territory is suitable for wind energy use. Covering more than 70% of the total territory, the steppe and Gobi Desert has a long duration of sunshine and vast reserves of clean energy, so it can be used to meet the energy consumption of the region. Serven solar power plant proves this,” said Mongolia Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai. “By using this advantage, Mongolia has the full potential to get out of energy dependence and expand its economy.”

“The new solar power plant will contribute to Mongolia’s transition to cleaner energy by advancing the country’s efforts to expand renewables,” said ADB Country Director for Mongolia Shannon Cowlin. “In addition to providing secure power supply to rural areas in the western region, the solar power plant will improve public health and resource usage by reducing air pollution and water usage.”

The project was approved in September 2018 with loan financing from ADB and grant cofinancing from the Strategic Climate Fund and the Japan Fund for the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JFJCM). The JFJCM is an ADB trust fund that aims to provide financial incentives for the adoption of advanced low-carbon technologies in ADB-financed and administered sovereign and nonsovereign projects.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Mongolia is ready to expand development cooperation with China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Development Initiative (GDI), Mongolian Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene said on Friday.

L.Oyun-Erdene made the remarks while meeting with visiting Luo Zhaohui, head of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar.

Expressing his gratitude to the Chinese government for its long-term assistance and support to Mongolia’s economic development and people’s livelihood, Oyun-Erdene said that Mongolia is ready to further cooperation with China under the framework of the BRI and the GDI in trade, port construction, desertification prevention and control, cultural and sports exchanges, pollution control, improvement of people’s livelihood, talent training and other fields, and jointly act on the important consensus reached by the two countries’ heads of state.

For his part, Luo said that the Chinese delegation’s visit to Mongolia aims to lift the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries to a higher level, deepen mutual development cooperation, and promote a number of important cooperation projects, especially Mongolia’s national tree-planting campaign dubbed “Billion Trees,” so as to better benefit the two peoples.

On the same day, the CIDCA, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China held talks with relevant departments of Mongolia. The two sides signed relevant cooperation agreements and held an unveiling ceremony for the China-Mongolia Desertification Prevention and Control Cooperation Center.

ULAANBAATAR, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday wrapped up a historic trip to Mongolia whose main purpose was to visit the miniscule Catholic community but which took on international connotations because of his overtures to its neighbour China over freedom of religion.

Francis ended his five-day visit with a stop to inaugurate the House of Mercy, a multi-purpose structure to provide temporary health care to the most needy in the Mongolian capital as well as to the homeless, victims of domestic abuse and migrants.

Situated in a converted school and the brainchild of Mongolia's top Catholic cleric, Italian Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, the House of Mercy is destined to serve as a sort of central charity coordinating the work of Catholic missionary institutions and local volunteers.

"The true progress of a nation is not gauged by economic wealth, much less by investment in the illusory power of armaments, but by its ability to provide for the health, education and integral development of its people," Francis said at the house.

He said he wanted to dispel "the myth" that the aim of Catholic institutions was to convert people to the religion "as if caring for others were a way of enticing people to 'join up'".

Mostly Buddhist Mongolia has only 1,450 Catholics in a population of 3.3 million and in an unprecedented event on Sunday, just about the entire Catholic population of the country was under the same roof with the pope.

On Monday, around two dozen Chinese Catholics surrounded the pope's motorcade, attempting to receive his blessings.

The devotees, who identified themselves as Catholics from mainland China and wearing uniforms brandishing the phrase "Love Jesus", crowded outside the House of Mercy charity centre.

As Francis’s motorcade departed the centre, they sang a Christian hymn dedicated to the pope in Mandarin, and attempted to dodge security and reach his car. One woman managed to get through security and received a blessing.

"I am just too happy, I can’t even control my emotions now," said the woman, who would not give her name due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Mongolia was part of China until 1921 and the pope's trip was dotted by allusions or appeals to the superpower next door, where the Vatican has scratchy relations with its ruling Communist Party.

At the end of Sunday's Mass he sent greetings to China, calling its citizens a "noble" people and asking Catholics in China to be "good Christians and good citizens."

On Saturday, in words that appeared to be aimed at China rather than Mongolia, Francis said governments have nothing to fear from the Catholic Church because it has no political agenda.

Beijing has been following a policy of "Sinicisation" of religion, trying to root out foreign influences and enforce obedience to the Communist Party.

China's constitution guarantees religious freedom, but in recent years the government has tightened restrictions on religions seen as a challenge to the party's authority.

In December, the United States designated China, Iran and Russia, among others, as countries of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations.

A landmark 2018 agreement between the Vatican and China on the appointment of bishops has been tenuous at best, with the Vatican complaining that Beijing has violated it several times.

The phrase used by the pope on Sunday - "good Christians and good citizens" - is one the Vatican uses frequently in trying to convince communist governments that giving Catholics more freedom would only help their countries' social and economic progression.

Reporting by Philip Pullella and Joseph Campbell; Editing by Michael Perry

In the first half of this year, 833 thousand (double counting) citizens of Mongolia traveled abroad, of which 553.6 thousand (66.5 percent) journeyed on tourism. This number exceeds by 410.2 thousand or 3.9 times more compared to the same period of 2022.

In the meantime, 279.3 thousand (33.5 percent) people traveled for work, study, or permanent residence, which is an increase of 205.6 thousand or 3.8 times more compared to the same period of 2022, reports the National Statistics Office.

Among our citizens who traveled abroad, 567.8 thousand (68.2 percent) were men, and 265.2 thousand (31.8 percent) were women, and 49.1 thousand (5.9 percent) were children. As for the duration of overseas trips, 797.8 thousand (95.8 percent) of them went for up to 30 days, 10.7 thousand (1.3 percent) for 30 to 90 days, and 24.5 thousand (2.9 percent) for 90 or more days.

Pope Francis urged Chinese Catholics to be “good citizens” and “good Christians,” a rare instance of the Holy Father publicly addressing the issue of religion in China.

Francis’ seemingly off-the-cuff comments came during his Sunday Mass in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The trip has been scrutinized because of both its historic nature – it is the the first ever by a Pope to the sparsely populated Asian nation – but also because of its potential geopolitical reverberations. Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine Francis has publicly criticized, and China, an atheist state where religious practice is heavily curtailed by the government.

Officially there are about 6 million Catholics in China, but the number may be higher when counting those who practice at underground churches to avoid Beijing’s watchful eye.

At the end of Mass, Pope Francis took the hands of the current Bishop of Hong Kong, cardinal-designate Stephen Chow, and his predecessor, Cardinal John Tong, calling them “brother bishops” before addressing China’s Catholics

Francis said he wanted to take advantage of their presence at his Mass in Mongolia “to send a warm greeting to the noble Chinese people.” Hong Kong’s Catholic leaders play an important role in navigating Vatican-Beijing relations, as the territory allows its citizens greater freedom of religion than in mainland China.

“To the entire people I wish the best, go forward, always progress. And to the Chinese Catholics, I ask you to be good Christians and good citizens.”

China may be officially an atheist state, but religious practice is legal in the country – albeit under tight government supervision and surveillance.

Catholicism is one of five state-recognized faiths, but state-sanctioned Catholic churches were for decades by bishops chosen and ordained by Beijing, not the Holy See, until the two sides reached an agreement in 2018. Details of the accord have never been made public.

Francis landed in Mongolia Friday for a trip that has lacked the usual fanfare of a Papal visit.

There are only 1,500 Catholics in the entire country of 3.5 million, but that number has grown significantly in the decades following country’s transformation from communist one-party rule to multiparty democracy in the 1990s. According to Vatican News, there were only 14 Catholics in the country in 1995.

The 86-year-old Pontiff spent the first day of his trip resting. He met with Mongolian political leaders on Saturday and on Sunday attended an inter-religious meeting alongside representatives from various religious communities, including Buddhists, Shamans, Muslim, Jews, and evangelicals and Russian Orthodox Christians.

CNN’s Sophie Tanno contributed to this report

With China's crackdown on religious minorities as a backdrop, Pope Francis joined Mongolian shamans, Buddhist monks and a Russian Orthodox priest Sunday to highlight the role that religions can play in forging world peace, as he presided over an interfaith meeting highlighting Mongolia's tradition o

Francis listened intently as a dozen faith leaders - Jewish, Muslim, Bahai, Hindu, Shinto and evangelical Christian among them - described their beliefs and their relationship with heaven. Several said the traditional Mongolian ger, or round-shaped yurt, was a potent symbol of harmony with the divine - a warm place of family unity, open to the heavens, where strangers are welcome.

The interfaith event, held at a theatre in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, came midway through Francis’ four-day visit to Mongolia, the first by a pope. He is in Mongolia to minister to one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities and highlight Mongolia’s tradition of tolerance in a region where the Holy See's relations with neighbouring China and Russia are often strained.

According to statistics by the Catholic nonprofit group Aid to the Church in Need, Mongolia is 53 per cent Buddhist, 39 per cent atheist, three per cent Muslim, three per cent Shaman and two per cent Christian.

Later Sunday, Francis was to preside over a Mass in the capital's sports stadium that the Vatican had said would also be attended by pilgrims from China. One small group of Chinese faithful from Xinjiang attended his meeting at the city's cathedral Saturday. They held up a Chinese flag and chanted “All Chinese love you” as his car drove by.

The Vatican's difficult relations with China and Beijing's crackdown on religious minorities have been a constant backdrop to the trip, even as the Vatican hopes to focus attention instead on Mongolia and its 1,450 Catholics. No mainland Chinese bishops are believed to have been allowed to travel to Mongolia, whereas at least two dozen bishops from other countries across Asia have accompanied pilgrims for the events.

Hong Kong Cardinal-elect Stephen Chow was on hand and accompanied 40 pilgrims to Mongolia, saying it was an event highlighting the reach of the universal church. He declined to discuss the absence of his mainland Chinese counterparts, focusing instead on Francis and the importance of his visit to Mongolia for the Asian church.

“I think the Asian church is also a growing church. Not as fast as Africa - Africa is growing fast - but the Asian church also has a very important role to play now in the universal church,” he told reporters.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded that Catholicism and all other religions adhere strictly to party directives and undergo “Sinicization.” In the vast Xinjiang region, that has led to the demolition of an unknown number of mosques, but in most cases it has meant the removal of domes, minarets and exterior crosses from churches.

The Vatican and China did sign an accord in 2018 over the thorny issue of Catholic bishop nominations, but Beijing has violated it.

The Head of State of the Holy See Pope Francis, who is on a State Visit in Mongolia, presented to the President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa an official copy of the letter of Guyug Khaan of the Great Mongol State, which is kept in the secret library of the Vatican. The official copy of the letter was made up to the highest quality requirements through use of advanced technology.

In his speech to the public, His Holiness Pope Francis said, that 777 years ago, at the end of August and beginning of September 1246, Pope's envoy priest John of Plano Carpini visited Guyug Khaan, the third Khaan of the Great Mongol State, and handed over the official letter of Pope Innocent IV. Soon after, the Great Khaan sent a reply letter with a seal engraved in Mongolian script, translated into many languages, which is now kept in the Vatican Library. “Today, I am respectfully presenting as a gift an official copy of this letter, made in the highest quality using advanced technology. This gift should become a symbol of the ancient friendship relations that are expanding nowadays.”

Clarification:

The Pope's emissary, Monk Plano Carpini, was one of the observers who witnessed the enthronement ceremony of the third Khaan of the Great Mongol State, Guyug, which took place in the Yellow Palace near Kharkhorin. In the fall of 1246, he presented a letter from the Pope to Guyug Khaan, demanding that the Mongols convert to the Crusader religion and confess their guilt for invading the Crusader countries such as Magyar. Consequently, Guyug Khaan not only rejected the Pope's demands and refused to convert to the Crusader religion, but the messenger returned with a letter warning the Pope to come and submit in person. Plano Carpini wrote about this in his travelogue "History of the Mongols". It is believed that Guyug Khaan's letter to the Pope had versions written in Mongolian, Persian, and Latin. In 1920, the Polish priest Krill Karalewski found a Persian letter from the Vatican archives and gave it to the researcher Masse. Masse made the first translation of the letter. Subsequently, a famous French Mongolist P. Pelliot researched and translated this letter. He published it with the Persian original, translation, and commentary and put it into research circulation.

The letter of Guyug Khaan, one meter twelve cm long, 20 meters wide, written in Persian on tarmac paper is stored in the secret archives of the Vatican, This letter, confirmed by double-stamping with the seal of Guyug Khaan of the Great Mongol State at the junction of the paper and at the end of the inscription, is a witness of 777-year history of relations between Mongolia and the Holy See, and a unique valuable heritage.

During his visit to the Vatican City in 2011, the President of Mongolia Elbegdorj Tsakhia got acquainted with valuable heritage related to the history of Mongolia, such as the letter of Guyug Khaan.