French minister to push 1 billion euro uranium deal on trip to Mongolia

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna arrived in Mongolia on Thursday for a visit aimed at strengthening ties and boosting her country’s access to the Asian nation’s vast rich mineral resources.

“I’ve arrived in Mongolia, a democracy three times the size of France, landlocked between China and Russia,” Colonna said in a tweet. France and Mongolia, she said, share a “partnership that strengthens the sovereignty and strategic autonomy of our two countries”.

The visit will build on a trip to the country by President Emmanuel Macron last month, a diplomatic official told reporters.

“Mongolia is full of resources which are not sufficiently exploited and which are not all identified,” the official said.

France, they added, “has several projects in progress, including a major one which aims to exploit uranium mines”, referring to a project by French nuclear firm Orano yet to be approved by the Mongolian government.

The project is estimated at “more than a billion euros” and will “make it possible to extract a significant quantity of uranium” to “reinforce the strategic autonomy” of France, said the official.

“Orano aims to make it a model of sustainable and responsible exploitation of resources”, the official added, in a field “traditionally” associated with pollution and damage to the living conditions of local people.

A deal is being negotiated, they added, and is on a “tight schedule”.

Colonna will meet Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and the country’s top diplomat on Friday.

On Thursday, she will take part in a meeting of foreign ministers on the theme of feminist diplomacy and women’s rights, organised by Mongolia and co-sponsored by France and Germany, Paris’s foreign ministry said.