China, Mekong countries launch Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, who is here to attend the 1st Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) foreign ministers' meeting, in Jinghong city, Southwest China's Yunnan province, Nov 12, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

KUNMING - The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) framework was officially launched on Thursday following talks among senior foreign affairs officials from China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in Jinghong, Yunnan province.

FOCUSING ON THREE KEY AREAS

The Lancang-Mekong River is a natural link between the six countries.

At the first LMC foreign ministers' meeting, they decided to cooperate in three key areas - politico-security issues, economic affairs and sustainable development, and social affairs and people-to-people exchanges.

At the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Nam Hong, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Thongloun Sisoulith, Myanmar Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh attended the meeting, and Wang Yi and Don Pramudwinai co-hosted the meeting.

The LMC is the first sub-region cooperation by the six countries involved, and the cooperation framework is in accord with development demands, and the fundamental, long-term interests of the six countries, Wang said.

The foreign affairs officials also expressed their willingness to have more frequent high-level visits, jointly deal with threat of traditional and non-traditional security issues, improve connectivity and industrial capacity cooperation, deepen cross-border economic cooperation, make proper use of natural resources and achieve sustainable development.