1 Institutionalizing Mongolia’s Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Status: An Important Contribution to Regional Security 1 By Mrs. Oyunsuren Damdinsuren Lecturer, School of Foreign Service, National University of Mongolia Introduction On 25 th September, 1992 at the United Nations General Assembly the President of Mongolia Ochirbat Punsalmaa declared Mongolia’s territory a single - state NWFZ and announced that Mongolia would work to have that status internationally guaranteed. President Ochirbat's address was important because in declaring Mongolia’s territory nuclear-weapon-free, he was in fact saying that Mongolia would not take sides with either of its neighbors or allow its territory to be used by one against the other. Due to its specific geographic and geopolitical location, Mongolia has served as a strategic buffer between her two neighbors for centuries. In fact, Mongolia, once part of the Manchurian empire until 1911, fears its southern neighbor more than its northern one. That is one of the reasons that in 1921, the country followed Russia’s October revolution of 1917, to become the second communist country in the world. The Mongolian’s choice led them, however, to a virtual isolationism from Western countries, and a complete dependence on the Soviet Union in terms of economy, politics and foreign policy, until the end of Cold War. Although, Mongolia have been maintaining good neighborly and balanced relations with both China and Russia, thanks to the positive changes in the international relations since 1990s, no one can predict dangers and threats which might come from them if international relations and security environment would change. Thus, for Mongolia it was crucial to develop a new and rational foreign and security policy. To this end, the Mongolian parliament adopted in 1994, two important policy documents, namely Foreign Policy Concept and National Security Concept of Mongolia. The National Security Concept defines one of the ways and means to ensure the security of the existence of Mongolia is “to ensure the nuclear-weapons-free status of Mongolia at the international level and make it an important element of strengthening the country's security by political means ”. Mongolia needs to institutionalize its NFZS because threats and use nuclear weapons are not fully prohibited by international law and nuclear danger and risks still persist. 1 Paper presented at the international conference “East Asian Security Issues and Regional Cooperation ” , organized by the Inha University, Republic of Korea, May 22-25, 2008