American Notes DIPLOMACY

Asia experts have long touted the advantages for the U.S. of opening a diplomatic post in Mongolia, the landlocked republic where 50,000 Soviet troops are stationed to guard the border with China. But the yet to be named U.S. ambassador will see that mountainous country only periodically. He will be posted in Washington, not in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. It will mark the first time that a U.S. envoy has fulfilled his mission from a desk on C Street.

Faced with a shrinking budget, the State Department could not justify the expense of opening an embassy in Ulan Bator. Neither could scores of other nations: 100 have diplomatic relations with Mongolia, but only 17 ambassadors are posted there. The U.S. will staff its embassy with a charge d'affaires and an assistant, who will work in an apartment leased from the Mongolian Foreign Ministry.