Hanoi (VNA) – With strong commitments and resolve of member countries, cooperation betweenMekong countries and the Republic of Korea (RoK) has developed in both depth and width, Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc said on November 13.

Addressing the secondMekong-RoK Summit, the leader highlighted the significance of the first Mekong-RoKSummit held last year in Busan, the RoK, to the Mekong countries and the RoK.  

The adoption of theMekong-Han River Declaration for Establishing Partnership for People, Prosperityand Peace has given more strength to the cooperation, contributing toaccelerating the building of the ASEAN Community, boosting regionalconnectivity and stepping up sustainable development of all member countries, PM Phuc said. 

He attributed these cooperationachievements to the efforts and resolve of the Mekong countries, as well as thefinancial and technical support from the RoK people and government.

The second summit offersa chance for the sides to review the implementation of the Mekong-Han River Declarationand discuss cooperation orientations in the new context, thus elevating thecooperation to a new height, the leader said.

In his remarks, RoKPresident Moon Jae-in highlighted the adoptionof the Mekong-Han River Declaration as a new step in cooperation betweenthe sides.

Thisyear, despite the pandemic, the countries have maintained their friendship andtrust by providing test kits and sharing experience in disease prevention andcontrol. Apartfrom infrastructure projects, the RoK and Mekong countries commit to joininghands in combating the epidemic and building medical capacity, he said.

The RoKwill provide 10 million USD for developing countries in the disease fight toensure that residents of the Mekong countries can access the vaccine.

The Mekong-Republicof Korea (RoK) cooperation initiative was raised at the 13th ASEAN-RoK Summit in October 2010 when Korean President Lee Myung Bank proposedorganising the Mekong-RoK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in order to enhancepolitic and economic ties between Mekong countries and the RoK, narrow thedevelopment gap, and support the building of the ASEAN Community.

The first Mekong-RoKForeign Ministers’ Meeting was held in Seoul in October 2011. At the eighth Mekong-RoKForeign Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore in August 2018, the countries agreed toadvance the cooperation mechanism from the ministerial level to the summitlevel.

The first Mekong-RoKSummit was convened in November 2019, during which the countries consented tocooperate on the basis of the three pillars of people, prosperity, and peace.

They identified sevenpriority cooperation areas – culture and tourism, human resources development,agriculture and rural development, infrastructure, information andcommunications, environment, and non-traditional challenges./.