The period from 1999 to 2003 was the first phase of Mongolia’s participation in peace-support operations. During this period, the government of Mongolia and its military dedicated their efforts to creating the legal foundation for participation in peace- support operations, training and educating personnel for the brand new missions. At the end of the period, Mongolia had established a firm policy with regard to the use of armed forces in peace-support operations.
Mongolia promulgated a new constitution in 1992. There is no specific language in the constitution that allows participation in peace-support operations. In 1998, the “State Great Hural,” adopted “The Basis of the State Military Policy of Mongolia”. According to this policy document, “to carry out functions within the UN Peace-keeping forces”36 became one of the primary functions of the Mongolian armed forces in
peacetime. The following year, Mongolia adopted a decision, so-called “Participating in peacekeeping activities” in July 1999. In September 1999, Mongolia signed a memorandum of mutual understanding between the Mongolian government and the UN. In accordance with these agreements with the UN, Mongolia assumed the responsibility of preparing its military personnel, contributing to peace-support operations, and ensuring readiness to fulfill its duties as a member state. These steps taken by the Mongolian government allowed it to draft and establish a domestic legal foundation for its participation in peace-support operations.
In connection with these documents, the State Great Hural adopted laws that regulate its military participation in peace-support operations. The Law of Armed Forces (2002) defined “participation in peace-support operations” as one of the primary tasks for the Mongolian armed forces, and the Law of Military and Police defines personnel
participation in the UN peacekeeping and other international operations (2002)37. This
law also defines and separates the responsibilities of the ministries of defense, foreign affairs, and other government agencies. In accordance with these laws, the government adopted a series of regulations and procedures that regulate its participation in peace- support operations.38 All these laws, regulations, and procedures established the legal
foundation for Mongolian participation in peace-support operations and defined relations with respect to management, organization, and preparation for peace-support operations.
In order to implement relevant laws and regulations, the ministry of defense (MOD) and GSMAF created an office in 1999 responsible for the implementation of laws and regulations. The main tasks of the office include developing doctrine and concepts for participation in peace-support operations; managing, monitoring, and evaluating overall deployments; training and preparing personnel and units deploying to missions; and collecting, analyzing, and applying lessons learned from overseas operations. Since then, this office has expanded and has the main responsibility for facilitating armed forces participation in peace-support operations, coordinating and managing all deployed operations, maintaining close relationship with the UN and other government agencies, and building peace-support operations capabilities.
Mongolia and its military have taken several actions to accelerate the implementation of initiatives involving peace-support operations. In 1997, the Mongolian armed forces established a 150th infantry battalion.39 Initially, the primary mission of this unit was combat, but was changed to peace support. Two platoons from this unit participated in the joint field training exercise CENTERAZBAT-2000 in Kazakhstan and the multinational peacekeeping exercise SHANTEE-DOOT in Bangladesh in 2002.
37 In 2010, The State Great Hural was made the amendments to this law and renamed “Participation in
Peace Support Operations”.
38 Some of these regulation and procedures are “The procedure of the border and customs service
inspection for the vehicles and equipment of the foreign units assigned for peacekeeping field exercise in Mongolia”(2003), “The procedure on type and quantity of supplies and equipment issued for personnel participating in peacekeeping and international missions”(2003).
39 The Armed Forces unit #150 is established in 1997 and became the first unit that designated for
peace-support operations. Since then, the Mongolian Armed Forces has established the second unit #330 in 2008 and the establishment of third designated unit is under the way.
Given the new task of preparing for and participating in peace-support operations, Mongolia has established and expanded its military-to-military relationship with other developed and developing countries, including the U.S., Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom in order to solve logistic and technical problems and educate personnel.
At the beginning of 1995, Mongolia started to send officers to different countries around the world, such as the U.S., Germany, Holland, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, Nepal, and Iran, for UN peacekeeping courses, training, workshops and seminars organized by the UN, USPACOM and regional organizations. For instance, Mongolian officers attended the PKO symposium in Thailand in 2000, the PKO trainers course in Hawaii in 2000, the South Asian PKO seminar-game in Nepal in 2001, and the peacekeeping command-post exercise in India in 2003. At the same time, Mongolia sends its Armed Forces personnel abroad for professional military education and training. From 1992 and 2011, Mongolia sent 298 officers and NCOs to the U.S for various kinds of military courses, training, schools and colleges.40
From 1999 and 2003, despite a shortage of experienced and trained personnel, Mongolia hosted several joint, bilateral, and multinational training exercises, courses and seminars with the UN, U.S., and Belgium. For instance, Mongolia hosted the Northeast Asia Peacekeeping Operations seminar-game in 2002, conducted a joint exercise with the Belgium Armed Forces in 2003, and, for the first time, conducted the bilateral exercise called “Khaan Quest” with the U.S. Armed Forces in September 2003.41 Since then,
domestically organized training courses and exercises have become an essential part of the training and educational system.
Active participation and new knowledge extracted from overseas and domestic training courses and exercises allowed Mongolia to develop new peace support operations training program in 2003. In accordance with the program, all armed forces units are required to include peace-support operations training in their annual training
40 The statistical data are provided by Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Defense of
Mongolia.
41 Initially, “Khaan Quest” exercise was designed for joint exercise of Mongolian Armed Forces and
the U.S. Armed Forces and annually conducted until 2006. In 2006, this exercise was expanded and became one of the top 5 multinational peace-support operations exercises in the region.
programs, and the GSMAF is responsible for conducting pre-deployment and specialized trainings for deploying units and personnel. At the same time, the peacekeeping operations office in the GSMAF started translating peace-support training manuals and documents from English to use in training. However, the MAF faced a language barrier: they had very few personnel who could understand English. The first English-language training laboratory was established in 2002 with assistance from the U.S.
In 2002, GSMAF drafted a plan for further development of the Five Hills Training Center as a National Peace Support Operations Training Center in the short run and a regional center in the long run, with assistance from the U.S. and partners. Mongolia has tailored its military training base to be a venue for peace-support operations for regional militaries to improve interoperability and confidence-building among regional nations.
In August 2002, Mongolia deployed two military observers to the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) that marked the first time for the Mongolian Armed Forces participation in the UN peacekeeping operations.