His entourage includes Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, Deputy Minister of Defence Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of Public Security Bui Van Nam and Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Cong, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Tan Dung, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Quy Kien and a number of other officials.
Overview of Mekong-Lancang Summit on January 9
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The MLC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism that was jointly established on March 23, 2016 by six countries including Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The event, organized every two years in rotation among member countries, is aimed at improving mutual trust and understanding for maintaining peace and stability, fostering sustainable development, poverty reduction, narrowing the development gap and boost comprehensive integration into regional and global economies and strengthening the friendship among the countries.
Under the theme “Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development”, this year’s summit is scheduled to review the cooperation since the first summit, discuss the directions for cooperation in the time ahead and adopt a number of important documents.
The six nations will work together to enhance cooperation in three pillars of politics-security, economy and sustainable development, culture-society and people-to-people exchange in the principles of equality, coordination, mutual consultation, voluntariness, contribution, benefit sharing, and respect for the United Nations Charter and international law.
Mekong-Lancang Cooperation will concentrate on five priorities of water resources management, connectivity, production capacity collaboration, cross-border economic cooperation and agriculture and poverty reduction.
At the first Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Summit, Vietnamese Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh affirmed that the cooperation mechanism could play an important role in promoting sustainable development in the Mekong-sub region, strengthening relations among six countries, supporting the countries in implementing the UN Agenda 2030 and deepening the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership.
It is necessary to sustainably use the Mekong River’s water resources in the context of serious droughts and salt intrusion in the lower course of the Mekong River, he added. Fully aware of the role and meaning of Mekong-Lancang cooperation on the sustainable and prosperous development of the Greater Mekong Sub-region, Vietnam has actively attended and made crucial contribution at ministerial-level and high-ranking meetings.
With the theme “Peaceful river and our sustainable development”, the member countries are expected to approve the Phnom Penh Declaration and the five-year Action Plan for Mekong-Lancang cooperation in 2018-2022 at the second summit.
Vietnam has actively participated in the Mekong-Lancang cooperation with many contributions on content and cooperation. Vietnam has proposed projects and has been unanimously included in the list of early harvesting projects to implement the first phase of Mekong-Lancang cooperation.
These projects have practical benefits in line with the priority of the Mekong-Lancang cooperation, especially the project to strengthen the coordination of flood control and drought management in the Mekong-Lancang region.
