PM Phuc attends 10th Mekong-Japan Summit

From right: Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Lao PM Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian PM Hun Sen pose for a photo at the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo on October 9.

Other leaders at the event are Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Lao PM Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

At the summit, the leaders are set to discuss measures to promote Mekong-Japan cooperation in line with the regional and global situation so as to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.

They will look into recommendations submitted by the 11th Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the establishment of three new main pillars of the Mekong–Japan cooperation.

The leaders will also deliberate the Tokyo Strategy 2018 for Mekong-Japan cooperation. With the resolve of Japan and the GMS countries, the summit is expected to create a new landmark in the bilateral cooperation with the approval of the Tokyo Strategy 2018, which will set up orientations for Mekong-Japan cooperation between 2019 and 2021.

So far, Japan and the five GMS nations have convened nine summits and 11 economic ministers’ meetings, reaching many concrete agreements and outcomes.

This time’s summit aims to review the 10-year development of the Mekong-Japan cooperation mechanism and the three-year implementation of the New Tokyo Strategy 2015, which has resulted in notable outcomes in infrastructure building, environmental protection, disaster management, climate change response, and people-to-people exchange.

In 2015, Japan pledged 750 billion JPY in official development assistance (ODA) for the GMS countries to carry out the New Tokyo Strategy 2015 so as to promote the countries’ connectivity through high-quality infrastructure projects.