PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc chairs the ASEAN - RoK summit on the sidelines of the 37th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The 2nd Mekong – Republic of Korea (RoK) Summit and 12th Mekong – Japan Summit are slated for November 13 as part of the ongoing 37th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits.
The first Mekong – RoK summit, which took place in the RoK city of Busan in November last year, agreed to establish the partnership on the three pillars of people, prosperity and peace, covering seven priority fields of culture, tourism, human resources development, agricultural and rural development, infrastructure, IT and communications, environment, and non-traditional security challenges.
The summit announced the establishment of the Mekong – RoK Biodiversity Centre in Myanmar, the Mekong – RoK Joint Research Centre on Mekong River Water Resources Management in RoK, and the Mekong – RoK Business Council.
Meanwhile, the 11th Mekong – Japan Summit, held in Bangkok in November 2019, adopted the joint statement of the 11th Mekong-Japan Summit and the Mekong-Japan Initiative for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards 2030.
The participating countries committed to stepping up the implementation of the Tokyo Strategy 2018 in tandem with the realisation of the SDGs in Indo-Pacific, and the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Master Plan.
The 37th ASEAN Summit and related summits, chaired by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, are running virtually from November 12 to 15. It offers opportunities for ASEAN member nations to comprehensively evaluate the results of intra-bloc cooperation as well as cooperation between the group and its partners, towards setting priorities for the next stage./.
VNA
