Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin participates in Eleventh Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting via Video Conferencing

September 09, 2021

U Wunna Maung Lwin, the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, attended the 11th Mekong-Korea Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting via video conference in the afternoon of 8 September 2021, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nay Pyi Taw.

The meeting was co-chaired by Mr Prak Sokhonn, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Cambodia and Mr Chung Eui-yong, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea with the participation of Foreign Ministers of the member countries; Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam.

At the meeting, the Foreign Ministers reviewed the progress of Mekong-Korea Cooperation and exchanged views on the future plan of cooperation under the framework.

In the Statement, Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin expressed special thanks to the Republic of Korea and Mekong countries for the assistance including provisions of medical supplies and financial assistance to Myanmar in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He commended the Republic of Korea’s active role in vaccine multilateralism to ensure safe, effective and accessible COVID-19 vaccine and appreciated the ROK for providing Official Development Assistance (ODA) to support the efforts of Mekong countries to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Union Minister further appreciated ROK’s annual contribution to Mekong-ROK Cooperation Fund (MKCF) to implement projects in each Mekong country, and the contribution of 4 million USD to the Fund this year. He also welcomed the approval of the 5th Batch of MKCF projects for 2021 to be implemented in member countries, including Myanmar, this meeting.

Moreover, the Union Minister supported the extension of “Mekong-ROK Exchange Year 2021” to the year 2022 for celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Mekong-ROK Cooperation. He also expressed his confidence in the planned establishment of Mekong-ROK Biodiversity Centre in Myanmar as a catalyst to boost cooperation in the conservation of biodiversity in the Mekong region.

With regard to the future cooperation, the Union Minister stressed the requirement to intensify cooperation on health security sector for prevention, control and treatment of emerging and reemerging communicable diseases including new variants of COVID-19, to upgrade the Mekong-ROK cooperation mechanism for supporting the economic resilience of member countries and, to enhance cooperation in higher education as well as technical and vocational education training for the youths.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present at the meeting.

The meeting adopted the “Co-Chairs’ Statement of the Eleventh Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting”, and endorsed the Fifth Batch of 7 projects which includes a project for Myanmar worth 0.2 million USD. The project will be implemented by Mawlamyine University on the impact of migration on rural development with special emphasis on agriculture of Mon State.

Mekong-Korea Cooperation was established between Mekong countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and the Republic of Korea in 2011 with the intention to promote friendship and cooperation between the Mekong region countries and the ROK and to narrow the development gap among Mekong countries. —MNA