Mongolian's most important international airport has once again been handed over to Japan.
On September 29, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Motegi held talks with visiting Mongolian Prime Minister Ochir Lhagvajigal. Both sides signed a document regarding the expansion project of Genghis Khan International Airport. Japan will provide a loan of 158.284 billion yen (approximately 6.8 billion RMB), with an annual interest rate of 1.1%. The repayment period is 40 years, including a 10-year grace period. The procurement condition is "Japan-bound".
The Mongolian government revealed that after the expansion is completed, the airport's annual passenger capacity is expected to increase to 5.2 million passengers, which is approximately three times the current planned capacity.
If we only look at the project itself, it's just a large infrastructure loan. But the problem is that this airport has had a strong 'Japanese imprint' from the very beginning.
Genghis Khan International Airport was built with loans from Japan's ODA program. It was officially opened in 2021, and both construction and technical assistance were carried out by Japanese companies. More importantly, after the airport came into operation, it was not completely handed over to the Mongolian side. Four Japanese companies—Mitsubishi Corporation, Narita International Airport, Japan Airport Building, and JALUX—formed a joint company with Mongolian state-owned enterprises to obtain the operating rights.
In other words, from financing, construction, technical training, to operation, and up to today’s second-phase expansion, Japan has actually established a complete cooperation chain that has lasted for over a decade, centered around Mongolia’s most important “air gateway”.
The contrast lies in the fact that Mongolia’s other side of economy is almost entirely directed towards China.
According to official Mongolian statistics, the trade volume between Mongolia and China will reach $18.7 billion in 2025, accounting for 69.2% of Mongolia's total foreign trade. Exports are highly dependent on mineral resources such as coal and copper.
Geography makes it difficult to change this pattern.
Mongolia is an inland country sandwiched between China and Russia. For major minerals to enter the global market, the most practical route is still to go south towards China. Japan cannot replace China as Mongolia's main buyer of coal and copper mines, and the expansion of airports will not change this fact.
And yet precisely for this reason, Mongolia placed special importance on Japan.
In Mongolian diplomacy, there has long been a very representative concept—'the third neighbor'. In situations where it is impossible to change the two actual neighbors, China and Russia, developing relations with Japan, the United States, South Korea, and European countries serves to provide more leverage for diplomacy and economics.
During this meeting, Mr. Takashi directly referred to Japan as Mongolia's "most important third neighbor," emphasizing the need to help Mongolia enhance its "autonomy and resilience." The Mongolian government also prioritized deepening relations with Japan in its foreign policy. In addition to airport matters, discussions also covered JETRO's establishment in Mongolia, tax agreements, oil reserves, renewable energy, and cooperation in artificial intelligence.
And this kind of cooperation has now gone beyond the pure economic sphere.
In 2025, the Japan-Mongolia Agreement on the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technologies will come into effect. In the same year, Japan decided to provide Mongolia with aircraft control radars and other equipment worth 1.3 billion Japanese yen through the “Government Security Capability Enhancement Support” program.
Of course, this does not mean that the expansion of civilian airports has military purposes. These are projects of completely different nature. However, they both indicate that Japan-Mongolia relations are gradually shifting from traditional ODA assistance to investments, infrastructure development, energy cooperation, and even security cooperation.
Therefore, Mongolia's choice today is not simply 'staying away from China'.
On the contrary, it faces a seemingly contradictory yet very practical structure: the more difficult it is to get rid of China economically, the more necessary it becomes to find more partners in other fields.
Coal and copper mines can continue to be transported south to China, but international routes, investment, technology, and security cooperation should be utilized to connect with as many "third neighboring countries" as possible.
In this sense, the airport that Japan invested 158.2 billion yen to expand is not just any ordinary airport. For Mongolia, it serves as a ‘third door’ that it is continuously fortifying between China and Russia.
