Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin attends and co-chairs 6th Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

The visiting Myanmar delegation in Chongqing, People’s Republic of China, led by the U Wunna Maung Lwin, Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, attended the 6th Mekong-Lancang Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in the afternoon yesterday.
The Meeting was co-chaired by Mr Wang Yi, the State Councilor and Foreign Minister of People’s Republic of China and Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin, and attended by the Foreign Ministers of the members of Mekong-Lancang Cooperation: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam.
During the Meeting, the Union Ministers reviewed the implementation status of the directives of the 3rd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting and the progress of Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund projects, and exchanged view on the future work of Mekong-Lancang Cooperation. The Ministers also reaffirmed their commitments to step up cooperation to achieve regional sustainable development.
At the Meeting, Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin stated that MLC member countries have to overcome global challenges such as climate change, pandemic, natural disasters and non-traditional challenges by means of mutual trust, mutual confidence and solidarity based on Mekong-Lancang family spirit. He added that MLC had achieved recognition in terms of practical benefit, speed and efficiency from its own peoples and also from the international community throughout its five years journey of cooperation. He thanked China for the establishment of the “Mekong-Lancang Special Fund for Public Health” to support the prevention, control and treatment of infectious diseases in the Mekong-Lancang region. He also highlighted the needs to intensify future course of cooperation on suppression of transnational crimes such as human trafficking, illicit drug production and trafficking, illegal weapon trafficking and illegal forest product trafficking.
Moreover, the Union Minister touched upon promoting people-to-people exchange and the youth sector under the framework of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation, the importance of coordination among the MLC National Secretariats/ National Coordination Units of member countries and synergizing between the MLC Economic Development Belt and New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
In the statement, Mr Wang Yi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, stressed that the future cooperation of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation would be guided by the doctrine of Development First, and vowed to enhance cooperation on the matters of COVID-19 response, access to COVID-19 vaccine and post COVID-19 economic recovery. He also stated that countries have to effectively utilize MLC Funds to uplift the livelihoods of peoples of Mekong-Lancang region. People-to-people contact, including education and youth cooperation, will also be strengthened under the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation framework, he added.
The Meeting approved a list of projects to be implemented by the “Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund 2021”, which includes (22) projects, worth of over (8) million USD for Myanmar. In this regard, Myanmar will receive fund from Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund to implement those projects which cover the areas of health, non-traditional security, vocational education, human resources, natural disaster prevention, vaccine production for animal diseases, culture, agriculture, environmental conservation, forestry, border trade, tourism and finance.
The Meeting adopted the three Thematic Joint Statements in the areas of cooperation among local governments, sustainable development cooperation and cooperation on traditional medicine.
Mekong-Lancang Cooperation was established in 2016 with an aim to assist regional efforts to achieve sustainable, inclusive development and narrowing development gaps in the region while promoting peace and prosperity. Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam are the members of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation.
Before the Meeting, Foreign Ministers of Mekong-Lancang Cooperation visited the MLC Exhibition, and attended the opening ceremonies of the launching of the MLC website with six languages of member states and English, MLC Design Contest and MLC Youth Online Platform.—MNA