Wang Yi: Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Sets a Golden Example for Regional Cooperation

On July 4, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the seventh Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bagan, Myanmar. After the meeting, Wang Yi and Myanmar's Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin jointly met the press.

Wang Yi said, the LMC, as the first new sub-regional cooperation mechanism with the participation of the six countries in a basin, has developed rapidly and achieved remarkable results since its launch six years ago, successfully setting a golden example of regional cooperation. The six countries along the Lancang-Mekong river will continue to uphold the Lancang-Mekong concept of "development first, equality, practicality and efficiency, openness and inclusiveness", promote the Lancang-Mekong culture featuring equal treatment, sincerity, mutual assistance and family-like atmosphere, persevere in seeking cooperation, and promote development wholeheartedly, to work for the continuous improvement and upgrading of the LMC.

Wang Yi summed up a series of new cooperation consensus reached at this foreign ministers' meeting with "three sixes":

First, the meeting discussed and mapped out six cooperation directions, namely, strengthening strategic guidance, deepening economic integration, expanding agricultural cooperation, pursuing green development, promoting digital cooperation and maintaining closer people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

Second, the meeting announced the implementation of six plans benefiting the Lancang-Mekong countries, including the Hundred, Thousand, Ten Thousand Action Plan on Lancang-Mekong Agricultural Cooperation, the Plan on Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Benefiting the People, the Cooperation Plan on Lancang-Mekong Digital Economy, the Lancang-Mekong Space Cooperation Plan, the Lancang-Mekong Talent Plan, and the Lancang-Mekong Public Health Cooperation Plan.

Third, the meeting deliberated and endorsed the Five-Year Plan of Action on the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (2023-2027) and issued six documents including a joint press communique and joint statements on deepening customs-trade security and customs clearance facilitation, agricultural cooperation and the guarantee of food security, disaster management cooperation, and cultural exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. Among them, the Five-Year Plan of Action on the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (2023-2027) will be submitted to the fourth LMC Leaders' Meeting for approval.

Wang Yi said, President Xi Jinping stressed that only by working together can we accomplish big and great things with a far-reaching impact. China will always pursue neighborhood diplomacy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, uphold common interests while putting friendship first, and share the benefits of cooperation with Mekong countries, so as to add development momentum, make the LMC more dynamic, vibrant and attractive, and create a better future for the people of regional countries.