Bloomberg, 25 November 2016. China postponed bilateral meetings with Mongolia indefinitely after its North Asian neighbor allowed a four-day visit by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The two sets of talks originally scheduled for next week were seen as crucial for Mongolia to access badly-needed Chinese loans and development projects.

“The meeting was intended for negotiations on soft loans and the projects on Tavan Tolgoi railroad, a copper plant and coal gasification project. Unfortunately, the Chinese side responded that this visit was unacceptable,’’ Munkh-Orgil Tsend, Mongolia’s foreign minister told reporters in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday.

A traditionally Buddhist nation that has deep historical ties to Tibet, Mongolia has hosted the current Dalai several times since 1979. Past visits have been met with reprisals from Beijing, which considers the Dalai Lama to be a separatist leader and routinely condemns nations that give him a platform to speak. http://tibet.net/2016/11/china-cancels-mongolia-talks-indefinitely-after-dalai-lama-visit/