Mongolia looks towards India to get its MiG-21s flying

New Delhi, November 19, 2011: Strategically perched on top of China, Mongolia has a precarious demand from India – to help in getting its ten Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter jets fly worthy. The Indian Air Force (IAF), the only force in the world that is flying these vintage jets, is the only hope of the Mongolian Air Force which has only these 11 jets left in its inventory.

According to officials from the Indian armed forces, the Mongolian Air Force had brought 44 MiG-21s in 1970s-80s and is presently left with only 10 MiG-21s.

“These MiG-21s are not in a fly worthy condition. Non-availability of spare parts is a major problem for the Mongolians,” an official said requesting anonymity.

Owing to dilapidated economic conditions of the country coupled with delayed acquisition process, the IAF has been forced to keep the MiG-21s in flying condition. Seeing the success of this programme, the Mongolians approached the India to help in restoring their fighter jets.

“After long drawn negotiations we agreed to transfer the spares to Mongolia. But transportation to the land-locked country is a problem,” another official told the Sunday Standard. An aircraft carrying military consignments needs to get prior permission from the country, whose air-space it is flying into. Due to this requirement, the plan ran into rough weather.

The other problem faced by the Mongolian Air Force is the training of its pilots as the aircraft have not been flying for nearly a decade now. “They want to get their pilots trained with the IAF. But nothing concrete has come out so far,” sources added.

Close ties with Mongolia will give India greater footprint in the resource-rich Central Asia and a strategic leverage vis-à-vis China. India has been steadily strengthening ties with China’s neighbours as part of its ‘Look East’ policy mooted in 1990’s.

The Indo-Mongolian ties go back in time. India was the first non-communist country to recognize Mongolia, which opened its embassy in Delhi in 1956. In 2001, India and Mongolia signed an agreement on Defence Cooperation, which included joint exercises and reciprocal visits by military officers, followed by the constitution of Joint Defence Working Group. But this has not helped Mongolian Air Force to restore its fighter jets to fly worthy condition.

Seeing its geo-strategic importance, India has been revving up military ties with Mongolia. The armies of the two countries annually hold a joint exercise, the cadets from Mongolian armed forces are imparted training at the National Defence Academy in Pune and their officers also come from training at the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in the North-east of the country.

According to experts, with China steadily increasing its influence in the countries surrounding India, New Delhi needs to find a way out to meet the small aspirations of countries like Mongolia.  

China has been developing ports in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It has also been helping Nepal build military and civil infrastructure.