Mongolia faces a strategic imperative to reduce supply-chain vulnerabilities that go beyond the usual focus on fuel and food security. The country is heavily dependent on a single export market and a single supplier, Russia, for critical inputs, leaving it exposed to disruption with little warning. 

The brief identifies three less visible but critical risks: an underdeveloped electricity grid that constrains industrial development and investment; near-total reliance on imported fertilizers that limits agricultural productivity and food security; and dependence on imported Russian ammonium nitrate for explosives, which is essential for the mining sector. It proposes targeted domestic production strategies, including distributed renewable energy and nuclear SMRs, coal-chemical complexes, and fertilizer production using domestic resources. Ultimately, while Mongolia has significant natural resources that could support greater self-sufficiency, realizing this potential requires deliberate long-term policy action, including systematic risk mapping and coordinated policy and legal frameworks.