Mekong - U.S. Partnership
Senior officials from the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) and Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) member states met in separate meetings May 23 in Bandar Seri Begawan on the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum Senior Officials Meeting (ARF SOM). The members of LMI are Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. The members of FLM are Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the United States.
The meetings were co-chaired by the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs’ Acting Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Y. Yun and USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia Deputy Mission Director Carrie Thompson. These meetings provided an opportunity for senior officials to deliberate on the recommendations from the third and fourth LMI Regional Working Group meetings and to prepare for the up-coming sixth LMI and third FLM ministerial meetings, July 1, 2013.
Senior officials approved changes to the LMI Plan of Action and affirmed their commitment to closer collaboration with ASEAN through the Initiative for ASEAN Integration.
The ministerial meetings for both the Lower Mekong Initiative and the Friends of the Lower Mekong will be held July 1, 2013 in Bandar Seri Begawan on the margins of the ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial Meeting.
Source: U.S. Department of State
Source URL: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/05/209959.htm
