Mekong - U.S. Partnership
Wonders of the Mekong (2017-Present)
The USAID-funded Wonders of the Mekong project applies research, capacity building, and outreach to solve conservation and development challenges in the Mekong sub-region. These challenges include overexploitation of natural resources, habitat degradation and fragmentation, flow modification, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and pollution. The project engages in simultaneous efforts to gather and synthesize environmental data, conduct…
NexGen Scientists (2021-2025)
NexGen provides funding for educational and professional development opportunities, and places fellows with private organizations, universities, and government agencies within the United States and Mekong countries, providing educational and mentorship opportunities for early career professionals and scientists from the Mekong sub-region.
U.S.-Singapore Third Country Training Program (TCTP) (2012-Present)
The U.S.-Singapore Third Country Training Program (TCTP) is a partnership between the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Department of State which jointly conducts capacity building course for Southeast Asian countries, in particular those in the Mekong region. TCTP supports ASEAN community-building efforts through its workshops and training seminars in developmental focused areas.
Mekong Research Symposium Shows Value of Local Partnerships
Civil society partners and local communities brought new dimensions to this year’s Mekong Research Symposium (MRS), which took place in Chiang Rai, Thailand, from 14 – 16 March. They spoke about the value of citizen engagement in deciding what data are useful and who needs the data, why local communities should be involved in collecting…
Strengthening Flood and Drought Forecasting
4,000 training hours, 111 trainees, and 19 government agencies in Lower Mekong countries. Those, in brief, were the numbers highlighted at the wrap-up event for a US-Republic of Korea (ROK) capacity-building project on 4 October 2022. The project, ‘Improved Hydrological and Hydraulic Decision Support for the Mekong Basin,’ took place over a 13-month period from…
Using Big Data for Decision Making
Advances in data processing and storage technology have made data about rainfall, river flow, forest cover, salinity levels and other environmental parameters freely available to anyone with Internet access and a computer— but making sense of that data remains a challenge. Imagine every government officer needing to scroll through thousands and millions of statistics every…
Joint Press Statement of the Friends of the Mekong “Recovery and Resilience”
Joint Press Statement of the Friends of the Mekong “Recovery and Resilience” - United States Department of State The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and the Governments and Members of the Friends of the Mekong Group on the occasion of the 2021 Friends of…
“Towards a Resilient and Connected Mekong:” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Atul Keshap’s Remarks at the 2021 Friends of the Mekong Policy Dialogue
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Keshap provided opening remarks at the 2021 Friends of the Mekong Policy Dialogue on January 12, 2021.
United States and Vietnam Convene 17 Friends of the Mekong in Support of a Secure, Prosperous, and Open Mekong Region
On January 12, the United States and Vietnam co-hosted the first Friends of the Mekong Policy Dialogue under the new Mekong-U.S. Partnership. In his remarks, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Ambassador Atul Keshap emphasized that the United States is committed to a secure, open, and prosperous Mekong region, highlighting the importance of this region to ASEAN centrality and to the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. The 17 participating countries and institutions under the Mekong-U.S. Partnership and the Friends of the Mekong offered recommendations on sustainable infrastructure development and connectivity; human resource development and building the foundations for a Mekong digital economy; sustainable water, natural resource management, and environmental protection; and COVID response and regional collaboration on health security.
Message from our Ambassadors
Now more than ever, the United States sees the importance of a partnership with the Mekong Region. Perhaps the best example of that is the new Mekong-U.S. Partnership, which was launched in 2020 as a successor to the Lower Mekong Initiative. This partnership – with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the ASEAN Secretariat – aims to improve lives in the Mekong Region by spurring economic growth, improving natural resource management, and tackling transnational crime. “We are open to working with all partners who shared our principled, transparent approach,” said Melissa A. Brown, Head of the U.S. Mission to ASEAN. Watch this video to learn more:
Mekong-U.S. Partnership at a glance
The Mekong-U.S. Partnership expands cooperation between the United States and the countries of the Mekong region.
