Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 23 – Sholban Kara-ool,
the leader of Tuva, yesterday opened a representation office of his republic in
Ulan Bator, an event that he said was “long awaited” and that will allow the
two republics to deepen their “traditional contacts” in trade and economic
cooperation, cultural and educational exchanges, and scientific cooperation.
The product of an agreement between
Kyzyl and Moscow last December, the new office will represent the Tuvin
counterpart to the Mongolian consulate general in Tuva, which has functioned
for ten years and which annually provides visas to more than 5,000 Tuvans who
wish to visit Mongolia (www.tuva.asia/news/asia/6068-ulan-bator.html).
Like the permanent representations
of the union republics in Moscow during Soviet times, this Tuvan office
represents a kind of proto-embassy both practically in terms of what it can do
for Tuvans visiting Mongolia and symbolically in terms of what it means to Tuva
and its past status as a quasi-independent state that famously issued its own
stamps.
At its opening, Sholban Kara-ool said
that the new office could promote the use of the new border crossing between
Tuva and Russia as part of a larger “transportation corridor between Europe and
Asia.” And he urged Mongolian airlines to develop routes between Kyzyl and
other cities of Siberia such as Irkutsk and Ulan Ude.
The new representation office, he
continued, “could become a good place for the organization of continuing
contacts between Mongolian and Tuvan businessmen,” especially in agriculture
and cross-border trade. And he suggested that it opens “enormous possibilities”
for tourism in both directions.
Sholban Kara-ool said that the Ulan
Bator office could be especially helpful for the 44 Tuvan students now enrolled
in Mongolian higher educational institutions. Indeed, he said, they will be
able to view it as “a little part of [their] Motherland.” And at the same time, Mongolian students can
find out about schools in Tuva in which they might enroll.
Also speaking at the opening was
Viktor Samoylenko, the Russian Federation’s ambassador to Ulan Bator. He stressed “the important and timeliness of the
opening of the representation” and suggested it would only intensify the
already close ties between Tuva and Mongolia.
An increasing number of the
non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation are opening such offices in
foreign capitals as are many predominantly Russian oblasts and krays. Most are essentially extensions of the
Russian embassies in these countries, but those like the new Tuvan one in
places with deep historical ties may play a far larger role.
That is because they serve as a
reminder to both Tuvans and the countries in which they are located that such
republics are not just part of the Russian Federation but something more, a
reminder that will only serve to encourage the Tuvans and their partners to
think more expansively about what the future may hold.
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