March 14, 2016

"'I hope that the Lancang-Mekong River Dialogue and Cooperation Mechanism will become a symbol of ASEAN-China cooperation,' a Vietnamese expert has told Xinhua in a recent interview here.

According to Tran Viet Thai, deputy director of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies under Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Diplomatic Academy, the Lancang-Mekong is among important mechanisms for the cooperation among Mekong countries.

There are cooperation mechanisms between Mekong countries with other outsiders, including the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) of the United States, the Mekong-Japan initiative and the Mekong-South Korea, among others, but, 'This is the first time that lower Mekong countries have an official cooperation mechanism with China, which is an upper country, to share information, coordinate sustainable use of water resource, as well as a mechanism to connect infrastructure and transport logistics production between upper and lower Mekong countries,' Thai said."

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-03/14/c_135185128.htm