In March, Mongolia and NATO signed their first bilateral cooperation program under NATO's new policy of developing more flexible partnerships with countries that engages significantly with international security affairs. Under the program, Mongolia will cooperate with NATO in security, disaster prevention and personnel training and exchange. Since the Cold War ended, Mongolia has been focusing on strengthening cooperation with Western countries and major international bodies, under the "third neighbor" policy to counterbalance the pressure of lying between two neighboring powers, China's and Russia, said Zhang Xiaoming, a professor at the School of International Studies with Peking University. The most-prominent third neighbors have been the US, the European Union, Canada, Japan and South Korea, Julian Dierkes, an Asian studies expert from University of British Columbia, was quoted by East Asia Forum as saying. NATO could help Washington accelerate its shifting strategic emphasis to the Asia-Pacific by growing toward the East, said Zhai Dequan, deputy secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. "Despite Mongolia's limited armed forces, Ulaanbaatar has joined some of the NATO's international tasks to add to its military strength, economic development and intentional status," he said. Mongolia, with a population of 2.8 million, has provided troops for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan since 2010. It also sent two contingents to support NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo from 2005 to 2007. Please note that this article and / or its accompanying media (picture, video, sound files etc…) has not been written, created or taken by M.A.D. Investment Solutions staff. It is not copyrighted to M.A.D. Investment Solutions nor does the company claim any ownership or rights towards the content and its accompanying media. The above article does not in any case represent the views or opinions of M.A.D. Investment Solutions or any of its affiliate individuals or companies. The article above is purely meant as a source of information to readers and does not constitute a legal or biding agreement in any way, shape or form. Ownership of the content and its accompanying media remains with its legal owner or contributor but was sourced from Public Domain sources. If you are the owner of this content or its media and would like it replaced or taken out of our website, please contact us on: info@mad-mongolia.com. For contact and comments directly relating to the above article and or its accompanying media, please refer to the source as stated below