Mongolia has OSCE application ratified

Mongolia's application to join the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been ratified, in its latest effort to implement its "third neighbor" policy, aimed at strengthening cooperation with Western countries and major international bodies other than its closest neighbors--- China and Russia.

The country has been the OSCE's Asian partner since 2004 and has now become the 57th member of the world's largest regional security organization.

Created during the Cold War as a forum for dialogue between East and West, the Vienna-based organization now covers more than a billion people in Europe, Asia and North America.

Na Lin, a researcher at the School of Mongolian Studies at the Hohhot-based Inner Mongolia University, said that Mongolia's close links with the West mainly stem from the formers' security fears over China and Russia, and its strategic shift to Asia-Pacific.

Mongolia attended the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago this May, under its Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program status for the first time.

Both sides also signed their first bilateral cooperation program under NATO's new policy of developing more flexible partnerships with countries that engage significantly with international security affairs in March.

Despite Mongolia being a NATO "ally-to-be" wedged between China and Russia, Na said any country that has suffered from external control in history is unlikely to join the organization.