Future murky for Russia-China pipeline as Mongolia omits project from long-term plan
- Mongolia, essential to the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, has left the project out of a long-term plan, suggesting work will be delayed
The landlocked country would cover much of the proposed route for the 2,594km pipeline, necessitating its involvement in construction and transmission fee negotiations.
The programme was announced last Friday by Mongolia’s “national unity” coalition government, whose three parties hold 118 out of 126 seats in the State Great Khural – the country’s parliament – following elections in June.
“We are entering a long pause, where Moscow no longer believes it can get the deal it wishes from Beijing and will probably park the project until better times,” said Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, a former official at the National Security Council of Mongolia.
Bayarlkhagva said that Beijing may not be happy with Gazprom – Russia’s state energy giant – over a perception the company wishes to “unilaterally” control the Mongolian section of the pipeline.
Mongolia hopes to get investment from China and Russia, [but] Russia does not have the money and China is not in a rush to build
“This would have meant a sudden and long-term increase of Moscow’s influence in Mongolia, to the detriment of Beijing,” he said. “Though never explicitly verbalised, it would have been ‘fair’ to include the Chinese into the Mongolian section’s development from the beginning.”