It’s not every day that a 13-year-old boy is given a horse that doubles as a warning to China and Russia, but such is life in the White House.

The government of Mongolia has bestowed a horse on President Trump’s son Barron, the youngest of Trump’s five children, the only one with Melania, and who turned 13 in March. Trump, who is hosting Mongolian president Khaltmaa Battulga at the White House Wednesday amid a series of disputes with China, made the most of the moment. He saw a picture of the steed and declared the animal "beautiful."

“The first family is very grateful to Mongolia for this time-honored traditional gift,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the Washington Examiner. “The horse has been named ‘Victory’ and will remain in Mongolia.”

That name points to the strategic significance of the relationship between the United States and Mongolia. The location of the country could make it a valuable outpost for U.S. intelligence operations in northeast Asia, a senior administration official suggested prior to Trump’s meeting with Battulga, a business mogul and a former judo champion. The meeting is a clear warning to China and Russia that the U.S. has friends in their backyard.

“It's a very traditional, symbolic way of recognizing the importance of the relationship,” the Heritage Foundation’s Anthony Kim, an expert in international economics, told the Washington Examiner of the gift horse. “That signal goes to Beijing.”

Mongol horses powered Genghis Khan’s vast conquests in the 13th century, and they remain an icon of the country. Barron Trump isn’t the first high-profile American to receive one as a gift. Chuck Hagel was presented with a horse while traveling to the country as defense secretary in 2014. Likewise, Mongolian leaders gave a horse to one of Hagel’s predecessors, Donald Rumsfeld, during a 2005 trip he made there.

The names of those horses suggest how the U.S. attitude towards the region has changed. Hagel dubbed his horse Shamrock after his high school mascot. “You be good while I’m gone,” he told Shamrock when he left the country.

Rumsfeld said the landscape of capital Ulan Bator reminded him of the state where his wife was born and where he purchased a ranch after President George W. Bush left office, so he named his horse Montana. A Mongolian official told Rumsfeld "only the steppe winds will ride on his back," saying the horse truly belonged to Rumsfeld alone. The former defense secretary returned to Mongolia and spent some time with Montana six years later.

Reunited with "Montana" - the Mongolian horse presented to me six years ago. pic.twitter.com/q6GBrbFy — Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) October 17, 2011

“It's kind of honoring the special friends and guests by presenting a horse but in this particular case," Kim said, "it seems to me they are trying to forge longer-term relationships."

Mongolian officials are worried about being too dependent on Russia and especially China, which accounts for 90% of Mongolia’s exports. China includes a region called “Inner Mongolia,” which forms much of the southern border of Mongolia.

"With regard to Russia and China, of course, we have confirmed all our borders and we do not have any border issue whatsoever,” Battulga said Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, through a translator. “I hope you are getting my point through this.”

Battugla is concerned that his powerful southern neighbor might try eventually to absorb Mongolia, according to Kim: “Every hour, they are self conscious about it."

Trump’s administration seems just as eager to reinforce the friendship. The president’s Wednesday meeting with his Mongolian counterpart, the first such get-together in Washington since 2011, is the second high-level contact between the two governments in the last month, following White House national security adviser John Bolton’s trip to Ulan Bator on June 30. There’s a third meeting already on the calendar: Defense Secretary Mark Esper will retrace Bolton’s steps in August.

“Having Mongolia as an ally and friend, just between China and Russia — that alone [makes for] a higher and stronger presence of the United States,” Kim said. “I think that's really kind of a message we can send out. And obviously, that’s not the end of the whole game here. This is the beginning of many more things to come.”