First Mekong - Lancang Foreign Ministers’ Meeting approves cooperation framework

BANGKOK, 13 November 2015 (NNT) – Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai attended the First Mekong - Lancang Foreign Ministers' Meeting at Jinghong in Yunnan province of China and agreed to lay out a framework for Lancang-Mekong cooperation to promote sustainable development.

Thailand has proposed two development projects to be implemented next year including the 130-million-dollars project for infrastructure development in the Mekong sub-region and the Trilateral Cooperation on Agriculture Project.

Thailand also will promote cooperation in diverse areas such as in management of the Mekong River Basin water for which information pertaining to the issue is yet to be compiled and assimilated.

In addition, senior officials of both parties will strengthen cooperation and discuss at lengths any unresolved water problems.

-- NNT 2015-11-14

As noted by NNT, foreign ministers from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and China attended the first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

The Nation reported back on 19 October that the purpose of the meeting is to establish the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/New-Mekong-cooperation-mechanism-30271164.html).

This will be the first time all six countries along the Mekong River have come together in subregional political, security, economic, and social cooperation. Accordingly, this is quite a significant event (as China has previously chosen not to join the other five nations as part of the Mekong River Commission).

Until now, China chose to concentrate on local impacts and management issues, and it preferred to negotiate on a bilateral basis to resolve problems, rather than take the more-responsible basin-wide view. Clearly, this approach favoured a situation where downstream riparians would be the ones to suffer most disproportionately from any negative effects caused upstream.

With China now joining the MRC members in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism, this should lead to basin-wide cumulative social and environmental management. It also should provide the opportunity for China to understand how its dams have led to water level changes and other adverse effects downstream, where tens of millions of people depend on the river for food, water, and transportation.