Mekong – Lancang Cooperation:
Myanmar’s military government hosted the first high – level regional meeting since the Army took power in 2021.
- China’s Foreign Minister and counterparts from Mekong Delta nations attended the meeting.
- Foreign Minister of China along with his colleagues from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam at the Mekong – Lancang Cooperation group meeting.
- It was held in the central city of Bagan, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- The theme of the meeting was “Solidarity for Peace and Prosperity”.
- The grouping is a Chinese led initiative that includes the countries of the Mekong Delta, a potential source of regional tensions due to an increasing number of hydroelectric projects that are altering the flow and raising concerns of ecological damage.
- China has built 10 dams along the upper stretch of the Mekong, the part it calls the Lancang.
- China has been criticized for the dams upstream on the Mekong river which affect water levels and downstream fisheries that are important to several Southeast Asian nations’ economies.
