Chinese Foreign Minister Begins Tour of Southeast Asia

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Myanmar for a meeting on Lancang-Mekong River cooperation in which the foreign ministers of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia will also participate. 

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The group is scheduled to discuss cooperation on economic ties, resource sharing and hydropower projects along the Lancang-Mekong Delta. 

The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism (LMCM) was born in 2015 with five priority cooperation areas: interconnections; production capacities; cross-border economic cooperation; water management; and cooperation in agriculture and poverty alleviation.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Myanmar to "enhance the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC)" and "build a closer relationship," Foreign Minister Wang said Sunday.

The Chinese FM held talks with his Myanmar counterpart U Wunna Maung Lwin in Bagan, Myanmar. The two officials met on the sidelines of the seventh LMC Foreign Ministers' Meeting. 

During the talk, the two sides exchanged views on the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). 

Wang said the LMC should synergize with President Xi Jinping's proposed Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative, and create pilot demonstration zones for the implementation of the two initiatives.

Chancellor Wang said the "Paukphaw" friendship between China and Myanmar, driven by the previous generation of leaders in both countries, has enjoyed broad public support and a deep social foundation. "This friendship has stood the test of the complex changes in the international landscape, has not been affected by the transformations in the respective countries and has remained rock solid", he said.

Wang Yi will later head to Indonesia to attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting as part of a tour of the region that includes Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.