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The summit Mongolia paid to host opens at prime minister level

UNCCD COP17 opened in Ulaanbaatar on Monday morning with the prime minister under the flag and the foreign minister as president designate, and with the gap CAW flagged last week intact: no visiting head of state had been reported at the venue by midday.

By CAW Staff17 August 2026
The summit Mongolia paid to host opens at prime minister level

The flag went up at the venue on Monday morning with Prime Minister Nyam-Osoryn Uchral and his cabinet standing under it, and a ceremonial caravan that had walked some 6,000 km through nine countries arrived to open the proceedings. The ceremony had everything except the guests the host spent six weeks signalling for: by midday Ulaanbaatar time, no visiting head of state had been reported at the conference in Mongolian or Chinese state coverage.

Uchral used the opening to ask for movement in six directions: land, climate and biodiversity treated as one problem; more investment in restoration, private capital included; resilience written into core development policy; herders’ knowledge kept central; technology turned into measurable investment; and mechanisms that hold the parties accountable. Foreign minister Battsetseg Batmunkh, the conference’s president designate, promised to steer decisions that are practically implementable and backed by genuine financial and technological support. The formal plenary, with the handover from the Saudi presidency, was set for mid-afternoon, past this edition’s deadline.

The ceremony had everything except the guests the host spent six weeks signalling for.

The stakes are the host’s own arithmetic. Mongolia has budgeted 250 billion togrog, about $70 million at the early August rate, to stage the conference, trained 600 volunteers, and brought a Steppe Action Agenda of 292 projects seeking $6.5 billion, with water for the Gobi at the top of the ask. More than 4,100 delegates had registered by late July. Thematic days run finance on 24 August, water on the 25th, land on the 26th and food systems on the 27th; Egypt takes COP18.

The fuel story that framed the host city’s month ended quietly, mostly. The per-vehicle purchase cap lapsed with the weekend as scheduled, the odd and even plate rule took over the roads on Saturday, and the supply task force promised normal dispensing from Monday. Whether the pumps delivered was still unreported by midday; the AI-92 price stays capped, the Price Council has not convened, and 65 railcars carrying about 4,000 tonnes were scheduled to arrive across the country today.

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