BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON THE VISIT OF MONGOLIA'S HEAD OF STATE
Via Teleconference
2:38 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thanks, moderator. And thanks to everyone for joining today. I just wanted to quickly go over the ground rules. Again, this is provided on background. Attribution is to a senior administration official. And we'll embargo the comments here only until the end of the call. All right?
Thanks again. And I will introduce our briefer today, [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Great. Thanks for joining, everybody. I'm pleased to announce that the Mongolian President, Battulga, is going to be visiting the White House tomorrow to meet with President Trump. This is a meeting we've been looking forward to for a very long time.
You know, Mongolia is a country that borders two authoritarian states, and, despite that, has managed to establish a free and open democratic society after it renounced communism back in 1990.
And, of course, many of you will remember that the U.S. and United States organizations played an important role in helping nurture Mongolia's democracy right at the outset. And that created a foundation of goodwill that persists to today. And we're looking to really build on that goodwill and expand our ties in terms of security cooperation and as well as in terms of economics.
So, the current situation for them economically is that about 90 percent of their trade has to go through China. We've -- want to start talking about and exploring ways that we can help diversify their trade flows. The United States already does have sizable trade for such -- a country with such a small population. Although it's a huge geographic area, the United States exports about 121 million dollars' worth of goods to Mongolia in 2018.
We have a huge trade surplus with Mongolia. We sell them automobiles and heavy machinery. And imports from Mongolia include minerals like tungsten, as well as cashmere. And they've got incredible cashmere that they produce there.
So, with that, I thought what I would do is field some questions from the group.
Q Hi. This is Steve Herman from the Voice of America. Thanks for doing this call. And I'd like to ask whether the administration supports this bipartisan bill on Mongolia. It was, I think, introduced and died last year. And it's been introduced again by Ted Yoho and Dina Titus from Nevada, the Mongolia Third Neighbor Trade Act. And if you do support it, how active is the President going to be in pushing it? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, Steve, thanks for the question. We've -- I'm certainly familiar with the bill that you mentioned. That bill was actually reintroduced in April by Representative Ted Yoho and Senator Ben Cardin. And as you mentioned, it would enable duty-free treatment for Mongolian cashmere products to be imported, like sweaters and shawls and so forth.
So I don't want to speak for colleagues in the U.S. Trade Rep's office, but it's certainly an interesting bill. And I'm sure that it'll be something that comes up in the course of our discussions.
Q Hey, it's Jeremy Diamond here with CNN. Thanks for doing the call. You know, we've seen U.S. officials travel to Mongolia recently, including the National Security Advisor. And Mongolia has previously been rumored as a potential site for a future summit between the President and Kim Jong Un. To what extent is it possible that Mongolia could be the site in the future? And in what way do you hope the President and the Mongolian President tomorrow will advance discussions as it relates to North Korea? Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah. Thanks, Jeremy. The North Koreans -- it's kind of interesting; they've got a relationship that dates back to its Cold War past with North Korea. And so there's interesting, you know, old ties there and -- which are intriguing.
Mongolia has been a very strong supporter of the United Nations and the United States economic pressure campaign on North Korea, and -- which, of course, we've been very appreciative of.
I can't speak to, you know, venues or things like that. There's nothing currently being planned, in any case, to really make news right now. But, you know, the Mongolians have a very strong relationship, as well, with South Korea. I think there are around 40,000 Mongolian citizens in South Korea and a lot of South Koreans who live and work in Mongolia. Mongolia has an excellent relationship, as well, with Japan.
And so, you know, we sometimes say that Mongolia has only got two physicals neighbors -- that it’s like a pearl between two oyster shells. And so, democracies around the region and beyond have been proud to serve as third neighbors to Mongolia. Mongolia has pushed this so-called “third neighbor policy,” and the United States is particularly honored to be a longstanding and reliable third neighbor to Mongolia.
Q Hi, my name is Lalit Jha. I am from PTI-Press Trust of India. I wanted to ask you about Huawei. Will you be asking Mongolia again to not to go by that route in 5G technologies? And what are the other countries -- can you give us an update on what other countries -- Asian countries -- (inaudible) what countries (inaudible) doing on Huawei?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thanks for the question. I think, if I heard right, you were asking about 5G technology. You know, irrespective of the country, the United States believes that having safe and reliable infrastructure for 5G systems is critical for all nations' ability to preserve their sovereignty in the 5G era.
Remember, with 5G, you’re talking about a paradigm shift in technology, not an incremental one. One in which all of our daily lives are going to be saturated with sensors that are going to be communicating with one another, not just the old paradigm of a couple, you know, cell phones talking to a core network through cell phone towers and routers and then coming back down to another cell user.
5G will permit devices to communicate very rapidly with one another, and that creates enormous opportunities for predatory and authoritarian states to steal our most intimate data, whether it’s our personal and private data as citizens or whether it’s corporate secrets or very sensitive government and security-related secrets.
So we think that it’s absolutely critical for countries to be considering all of the long-term consequences and ramifications of going with suppliers from countries that have pursued a totalitarian vision for the role of the state in peoples’ lives and in the economy and in the culture and the like.
And so, that’s really something that all countries need to take heed of.
Q Hello, this is Mark Magnier with the South China Morning Post. Thank you very much for the opportunity. You mentioned tungsten, and I was wondering, given -- I guess Marco Rubio just released a bill on rare earths. Does Mongolia have any role in that? Or is the administration talking to them and trying to kind of bolster that effort to counter China on that front? Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, Mark, good to hear your voice. It’s been a very long time. Glad to hear that you’re in DC now. And sorry to punt on your good question.
I think to answer specifics on like 5 -- or the rare earths and things related to specific deals or minerals, I’d refer you to our Commerce Department and the USTR on that. I don’t have a lot for you on that front.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Great. Well, thanks again everyone. So this is, again, the first visit by a Mongolian President to the White House since 2011.
It builds on some of the other engagements that this administration has had, including the visit by the Mongolian Prime Minister last year who came to the White House to visit Vice President Pence. He also had a handshake and a brief encounter with President Trump up at the U.N. General Assembly last September.
Ambassador Bolton made a trip out to Mongolia just a few weeks ago. And we’re very excited to host the President here tomorrow.
So thanks again for dialing in.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And just as reminder: This was provided on background. Attribution to a senior administration official. And now that the call is over, embargo is lifted. Thanks so much for dialing in today.
END 2:49 P.M. EDT
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