ULAN BATOR: China’s Xi Jinping began a two-day trip to neighbouring Mongolia on Thursday — the first Chinese president to visit in more than a decade — with trade high on the agenda against a backdrop of resource nationalism.

Mongolian Prime Minister Altanhuyag Norov welcomed Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at Ulan Bator’s international airport, named for the Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan.

“China and Mongolia are now standing at a new historical point in growing their relations,” Xi said according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

Beijing needs natural resources from abroad to power its economy, the world’s second largest, and the two countries share an extensive border and skyrocketing commercial links.

China is the biggest investor in Mongolia, and also the largest market for its huge stocks of coal and copper.

Bilateral trade has soared to $6 billion in 2013 from just $324 million in 2002 and makes up more than half of Mongolia’s total foreign trade, Xinhua said.

But resource nationalism has become the defining issue in Mongolian politics in recent years with the country in 2012 tightening approval requirements for foreign companies seeking to do business in “strategic “sectors such as minerals.

The state-run China Daily newspaper reported that a deal which gives Mongolia the use of “several” Chinese ports — including the busy northern hub of Tianjin — was expected to be discussed during the visit.

Xi will meet Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj, who will hold a “family banquet” for the Chinese leader and Peng, assistant foreign minister Liu Jianchao told reporters ahead of the trip.

Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor, was the last Chinese president to visit Mongolia, in 2003.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014