Mekong region countries should steer clear of external divisive forces

Premier Li Qiang met with the leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam on Thursday during the eighth Greater Mekong Subregion Summit in Kunming, Yunnan province.

The meeting, held on Wednesday and Thursday, is expected to consolidate consensus on the basis of the previous agreements reached between China and Mekong countries and negotiate measures to promote coordinated socioeconomic development and regional integration. China hopes that in-depth exchanges can help promote cooperation in key areas such as regional connectivity, trade and investment, agriculture and poverty reduction.

In August, China put forward a four-point proposal for regional cooperation in the next stage, from upholding genuine multilateralism and open regionalism, and resisting zero-sum games and "decoupling" and "supply-chain-breaking", to stepping up joint efforts to combat transnational crimes and safeguard regional stability, and improving science, technology and innovation cooperation mechanisms, and strengthening artificial intelligence capacity building to better serve regional countries. It also includes accelerating the building of connectivity networks, maintaining unimpeded production and supply chains, strengthening cooperation on climate change and disaster prevention and reduction, and facilitating personnel exchanges.