Source: Kyodo news agency, Dow Jones, Montsame              Date: 27 July, 2011

Whatever may be the exact diplomatic term for the nature of Japan’s reaction to the choice of investors in Tavan Tolgoi, its Government leaders are taking every opportunity to tell their Mongolian counterparts that Japanese compnaies hope to actively participate in the development of the deposit.

Mr. N.Koga, a member of the Japanese Diet and a senior leader of the Japan-Mongolia Friendship Group, delivered to Premier S.Batbold a letter from Prime Minister Nato Kan saying this. At their meeting on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Bali, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto expressed to his Mongolian counterpart Gombojav Zandanshatar the hope that Japanese companies will be able to invest in projects to develop the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine, Japanese officials said.

Earlier, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on its website that Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Banno told Mongolia's Minister for Road, Transportation and Construction Kh. Battulga at a meeting in Tokyo last week that he hoped "Japanese companies would participate in developing Mongolia's mineral resources including the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine". Mr. Battulga responded by saying Mongolia "expects Japanese companies' participation in mineral resource development projects and related infrastructure businesses such as railroad," the statement said.