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Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui Attends the Inauguration Ceremony of the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Information Sharing Platform's Website

2020-12-01 09:52

On November 30, 2020, Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui attended and addressed the inauguration ceremony of the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Information Sharing Platform's website hosted by the Ministry of Water Resources. Minister of Water Resources E Jingping delivered a keynote speech at the ceremony, which was also attended by envoys from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Luo Zhaohui said in his speech that the Lancang-Mekong river is a natural bond that links the six countries and a cradle for generations of riparian people for thousands of years. Since the commencement of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism over four years ago, water resources cooperation has become a flagship area of cooperation, with the cooperation in relevant fields in full swing. The Water Resources Cooperation Center has been established, and ministerial meetings, joint working groups and cooperation fora have operated smoothly. All parties have fully implemented the Five-year Action Plan and yielded fruitful results.

Strengthening hydrological information sharing and jointly establishing the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Information Sharing Platform were the important initiatives proposed by Premier Li Keqiang at the Third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders' Meeting in August this year. From the beginning of this month, China started to share hydrological information of the Lancang River in dry season with the Mekong countries. And the website of the information sharing platform was launched today. It shows China's firm determination to promote the LMC and to elevate water partnership.

Luo Zhaohui said that against the backdrop of triple challenges of once-in-a-century changes, COVID-19 and China-US competition, and rampant protectionism and unilateralism, the LMC has shown great vitality by forging ahead against the downward trend. The six countries have made robust anti-pandemic cooperation, promoted work and production consumption, and enhanced people-to-people exchanges, which exemplified the Lancang-Mekong spirit of "shared river, shared future". We need to stick to our initial purpose of cooperation, join hands to deal with challenges, seek integration and common development, and make this new mechanism bring more benefits to the people along the river.

First, we need to deepen water resources cooperation. Water resources governance benefits future generations. We need to intensify upper- and lower-stream coordination, take care of each other's concerns, implement practical cooperation projects, and improve comprehensive governance capabilities, making the Lancang-Mekong River a river of friendship, cooperation and prosperity all together.

Second, we need to work together to defeat the pandemic. Currently, the second wave of the pandemic is ravaging around the globe. Although the six countries along the Lancang-Mekong River are doing relatively well in pandemic control, the alert is far from being removed. We need to continue to deepen our anti-pandemic cooperation, make good use of the special fund for public health, share experience, develop and deploy vaccines, improve early warning of infectious diseases and traditional medicines cooperation, and make joint responses to non-traditional challenges such as public health and poverty alleviation.

Third, we need to accelerate economic recovery. The central objective of the LMC is to advance development. We need to implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), synergize the LMC with the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, deepen cooperation on border trade, cross-border e-commerce and industrial parks, build a regional network of "fast tracks" and "green lanes", improve sub-regional industrial and value chains, and build the Mekong-Lancang Economic Development Belt together.

Fourth, we need to eliminate external interruptions. Some countries outside the region repeatedly made use of the issue of the Mekong water resources to spread rumors and play up the so-called "Chinese threat" for political purposes, in order to sow discord among countries and sabotage sub-regional cooperation. The Mekong sub-region is an arena of common development, rather than a battlefield of geopolitics. China will keep boosting strategic mutual trust with the Mekong countries, uphold win-win cooperation, and work with them to develop and safeguard our shared home.

Luo Zhaohui concluded that the important parts of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization are the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. China has made remarkable achievements in preserving ecological environment in recent years. The Chinese government is willing to work with other five countries to closely cooperate on the protection, management and development of the Lancang-Mekong water resources, discuss the future LMC development, build a community with a shared future for Mekong countries, and share the fruitful outcomes of the LMC.

As one river bearing two different names (Lancang River and Mekong River), the Lancang-Mekong River is an important trans-boundary river linking China and the Indochina Peninsula. With a length of 4,880 kilometers and a drainage area of 795,000 square kilometers, it originates from Qinghai, China and runs through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Water resources cooperation is an important cooperation area of the LMC mechanism. After the establishment of the Water Resources Cooperation Center in June 2017, water cooperation fora and ministerial meetings of water resources cooperation were convened. The Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Information Sharing Platform is used to systematically display the results of the Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation, and share water resources cooperation cases and the basic knowledge of water conservation, aiming to reinforce the sharing of Lancang-Mekong water resources information, experience and governance capabilities, and provide decision-making basis and technological support for the comprehensive management and reasonable development and usage of the Lancang-Mekong water resources.

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