US in ship security deal with landlocked and navy-less Mongolia

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States signed a pact Tuesday with Mongolia, which is landlocked, to carry out high-seas interceptions of ships suspected to be ferrying weapons of mass destruction.

The US government said its eighth bilateral Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) would boost its campaign to intercept any oceanic trafficking in nuclear, chemical and biological arms by rogue states or extremists.

US officials were undeterred by the fact that Mongolia, home to the Gobi Desert and the nomadic descendants of Genghis Khan, is not exactly known for seafaring.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack noted that while it may not have access to the sea, Mongolia does have a shipping registry that has attracted at least 61 vessels whose owners wish to...