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.
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.
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.
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