Minister of State for Foreign Affairs U Kyaw Tin is seen together with other ministers attending the 2nd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. Photo: MNA
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs U Kyaw Tin attended the 2nd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Siem
Reap, Cambodia on 23 December 2016.
The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Prak Sokhonn, Senior Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Kingdom of Cambodia and Mr. Wang Yi, Foreign Minister, People’s Republic of China. It was also attended by Mr. Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mr. Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand.
At the meeting, the Ministers adopted the Joint Press Communiqué, Matrix of the follow-ups to the 45 outcome projects endorsed at the 1st MLC Leaders’ Meeting held in Sanya, Peoples’ Republic of China in March 2016 and the General Principles for the Establishment of the Joint Working Groups on the five MLC key priority areas, namely Connectivity, Production Capacity Cooperation, Cross-border Economic Cooperation, Water Resources, Agriculture and Poverty Reduction.
During the meeting, China officially announced the launch of Mekong-Lancang Special Fund with 300 million US Dollar capital to implement the cooperation projects to the benefit of all the people in the Mekong region. It was also decided to convene the next Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in China in 2017 and the 2nd MLC Leaders’ Meeting in Cambodia in 2018.
Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) is a sub-regional mechanism between China and Mekong countries namely, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Viet Nam and Thailand.
MLC was initially proposed during the 17th SEAN-China Summit held in Nay Pyi Taw.
Under this mechanism, China and Mekong countries have been cooperating based on three pillars namely, the Political and Security, Economic and Sustainable Development and Social, Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges.
While in Siem Reap, Minister for Foreign Affairs met with Mr. Wan Yi, Foreign Minister of the Peoples’ Republic of China and discussed matters on Mekong subregional cooperation and bilateral relations.—Myanmar News Agency