Foreign Minister attends 7th Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son made that above statement while attending the seventh MLC Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Bagan, Myanmar on July 4.

Bui stressed the significance of speeding up economic recovery, enhancing economic resilience, and strengthening customs cooperation and trade facilitation to address goods congestion and ensure the flows of goods and services.

He called on the member countries to adapt to climate change and transit into a green economic model, including upgrading clean energy production and storage capacity, and applying high technology to smart agriculture and climate change response.

The minister called for stronger cooperation in management and sustainable use of water resources, especially accelerating the building of a MLC action plan for water resources cooperation during 2023-2027 period.

He highlighted the need to encourage the expansion of consultations and dialogues among member countries on the water resources development plan and foster coordination between the MLC and the Mekong River Commission.

It is necessary to strengthen people-to-people exchanges via resumption and expansion of tourism activities and local-to-local cooperation, the organization of culture, sports and communications events, he noted.  

The meeting adopted a Joint Press Communique and four joint statements on strengthening agricultural cooperation, disaster prevention, customs and trade facilitation, and exchanges between MLC civilizations.

Established in 2016, the MLC member countries consist of Thailand, China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

The two-way trade Mekong countries and China reached nearly US$400 billion in 2021, up 23 percent against the previous year.