What’s new: Liu Jinsong, head of Asian affairs at the Chinese foreign ministry, and Mongolia’s ambassador to China, Tuvshin Badral, agreed that the two countries should work together to tackle sandstorms, further reduce desertification and combat climate change.
The two officials met on Thursday and reached agreements on cooperating in these areas after an “in depth” exchange of views, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement, without elaborating.
The background: In recent years, Mongolia has become a major source of dust storms in China, which has been working hard to reduce desertification.
Recently, Beijing and many other parts of northern China were hit by a severe dust storm that authorities blamed on Mongolia.
There had been eight dust-related weather events in China this year as of early April, more than the usual number for the same period in the past, authorities said. Most of them were related to the country’s northern neighbor.
Read more
In Depth: Vast Sandstorms Expose Mongolia’s Long-Ignored Ecological Crisis
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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