China today said Mongolia should draw lessons and respect its "core interests" to improve bilateral ties after Ulaanbaatar expressed regret over the Dalai Lama's recent visit to the predominantly Buddhist country and announced that the Tibetan spiritual leader would not be allowed to visit again.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tibet related issues bore on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity as wellas its "core interests".
She said China has noted the remarks by Mongolian Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil who expressed regret for inviting the Dalai Lama and his commitment to not to invite the Tibetan leader again.
"Our position on this issue is explicit and clear. We hope that the Monglian side can draw lessons from this, respects China's core interests honour its commitments and make efforts to improve Mongolia-China relations," Hua said.
The Mongolian Foreign Minister said yesterday that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit in the future, even for religious reasons, the state-run Xinhua news agency cited a local Mongolian newspaper as saying.
The Mongolian Minister expressed regret that the Dalai Lama's visit hurt ties with Beijing.
His comments aimed at mending fences with China came after Beijing virtually imposed a blockade to the landlocked Mongolia which located between Russia and China and reportedly put off talks on USD 4.2 billions loans sought by Ulaanbaatar to tide over tight economic situation.
Mongolia had allowed the Dalai Lama to visit the country last month during which he took part in several religious ceremonies.
China had reacted sharply saying "the wrong doing by Mongolia on this issue diminished political foundation between the two countries and brought negative impact to bilateral relations."
Following the blockade, the Mongolian Ambassador to India had reportedly sought the Indian government help and New Delhi has reciprocated with the USD one billion credit line which was termed as a "bribe" by the Chinese official media.
Mongolia's economy is highly dependent on China, with more than 90 per cent of its imports and exports traded directly with China. As such, China's influence on Mongolia's economy cannot be replaced by India in the short run, and efforts will be in vain if India attempts to bribe Mongolia's loyalty with only USD one billion," an article in the daily said.
On December 9, another article in the same daily warned Mongolia that "It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons."
China regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist, though he says he merely seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland Tibet, which Communist Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" in 1950.
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