First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation leaders’ meeting opens in Hainan
VGP – The First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation leaders’ meeting was opened on March 23 in Hainan province, China with the participation of leaders from six countries sharing the river to discuss future cooperation.
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`Photo: VGP/Hai Minh |
The six countries agreed to promote cooperation in three pillars namely politics-security; economic, sustainable development; culture, society, and people-to-people exchanges.
They approved basis principles for the work, including consensus, equality, mutual consultation, voluntariness, joint contribution, benefit sharing, and respect for the UN Charter and international law.
In the coming time, Lancang-Mekong Cooperation will focus on five areas, namely water resource management, connectivity, production cooperation, cross-border economic cooperation, agriculture, and poverty eradication.
Participants acknowledged the necessity to strengthen cooperation in response to natural disasters and climate change; and regarded China’s move to discharge massive volume of fresh water downstream to alleviate droughts as a good beginning for cooperation.
They also supported the building of a center on Lancang-Mekong water cooperation to promote cooperation among the six countries in information sharing, flood and drought management, joint researches on water resources.
At the meeting, the Chinese Premier also pledged to support a package of US$300 million for the Lancang-Mekong Cooperative Fund; grant ¥ 10 billion for preferential loans, US$5 billion of buyer loans, and US$5 billion for special loans. China will also provide 18,000 scholarships and 5,000 training courses for Mekong member states in the next three years.
On the occasion, the Sanya Joint Declaration “For a joint future community for peace and prosperity among Lancang-Mekong countries was adopted.
In addition, the leaders also passed the Joint Declaration on production cooperation and a list of early harvest projects./.
By Khanh Phuong
