The Mekong Ganga Cooperation initiative and the

ASEAN

Dr Uday Dokras Ph D SWEDEN

Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) between India and Kingdom of Cambodia

was signed in 2000

The Mekong Ganga Cooperation initiative -In order to strengthen our old age close cultural
links, Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) between India and Kingdom of Cambodia was
signed in 2000 which has been renewed from time to time. During the State Visit of Prime
Minister Hun Sen to India in January 2018, the CEP has been renewed for a further period of
four years till 2022. During recent visit of Hon’ble EAM, a Memorandum of The Mekong
Ganga Cooperation initiative, announced and setup MGC Asian Traditional Textiles Museum at
Siem Reap which is a unique repository of traditional textiles of India and Southeast Asian
countries including Cambodia. It also has a training centre and workshop in textiles; a fashion
design and development centre using traditional ethnic designs; and various children activities in
the centre. It also helps preserve the age-old tradition of textiles in this region. The Museum is
another attraction for tourists coming to Siem Reap.

Launch of MGC Business Forum in January 2018

The first MGC Business Forum was organised on 24 January 2018 in New Delhi by FICCI, in
partnership with Government of India. This was organised on the sidelines of India-ASEAN
Commemorative Summit. 

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FICCI Committee on Mekong Ganga Cooperation
The FICCI Committee on Mekong Ganga Cooperation was launched on 25th September 2018 at
Federation House, New Delhi. Mr OP Lohia Managing Director, Indo Rama in the Chair of this
committee.

The objective of MGC Committee is to constructively engage private sector in order to evolve a
long-term strategy to deepen economic connect in the sub region, thus serving the greater
purpose of ASEAN integration and supporting Act East Policy of the Govt of India. This
Committee is a direct outcome of the shared desire to strengthen economic linkages between
India and Mekong countries.

About Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC)

Background

1. The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) is an initiative by six countries – India and five
ASEAN countries, namely, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam for
cooperation in tourism, culture, education, as well as transport and communications. It

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 was launched in 2000 at Vientiane, Lao PDR. Both the Ganga and the Mekong are
civilizational rivers, and the MGC initiative aims to facilitate closer contacts among the
people inhabiting these two major river basins. The MGC is also indicative of the cultural
and commercial linkages among the member countries of the MGC down the centuries.

Previous MGC Ministerial Meetings

2. The 1st MGC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vientiane from 9-13 November 2000. It
issued the Vientiane Declaration on MGC covering cooperation in the 4 traditional areas.
The 2nd MGC Ministerial Meeting was held in Hanoi on 28 July 2001, and adopted the
Hanoi Programme of Action (HPA), a detailed Work Programme for six years (July 2001
to July 2007), providing specific actions for cooperation, in the 4 traditional areas. The 3rd
MGC Ministerial Meeting was held in Phnom Penh on 20 June 2003 and provided
additional political impetus to the MGC initiative. It adopted the Phnom Penh Roadmap.
3. On the margins of the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the Philippines, in January 2007,
Thailand, the then chairman of the MGC, handed over chairmanship to India on 12
January 2007. The 5th MGC Ministerial Meeting was held at Manila, Philippines on 1
August 2007, and was chaired by India. Thereafter, the MGC Ministerial Meetings
remained pending for 5 years from 2007-2012.
4. India hosted the 6th MGC Ministerial Meeting on 4 September 2012, in New Delhi
preceded by the MGC Senior Officials Meeting on 3 September 2012. The Meeting was
chaired by the then EAM, Shri. S.M. Krishna, and saw active participation from all the
MGC partner countries in which beyond the four existing traditional areas of cooperation,
viz. tourism, culture, education, and transport & communications, our Ministers agreed to
widen collaboration into newer areas, such as SME cooperation, conservation of Rice
Germplasm, setting up a Working Group on Health, establishment of a Common Archival
Resource Centre (CARC) at the Nalanda University, and finally, India–Cambodia Laos
Myanmar Vietnam Quick Impact Projects.
5. The Ministers also noted the positive developments in India-Myanmar-Thailand
Trilateral Highway project and other ongoing cooperation under the India-ASEAN
framework to realize India-ASEAN Connectivity. Keeping in view the significance of
connectivity amongst the MGC countries, and its associated benefits, the Ministers agreed
to expeditiously take forward matters related to the extension of the India-Myanmar-
Thailand Trilateral Highway to Cambodia and Lao PDR, and to the new proposal for the
development of an India-Myanmar-Lao PDR-Viet Nam-Cambodia highway.

Seventh MGC Ministerial Meeting

6. The 7th MGC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vientiane on 24 July 2016 in a cordial
atmosphere. Indian side was led by Gen. (Retd.) Dr. V. K. Singh, Minister of State for
External Affairs. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of other MGC countries were present at
the meeting. A short film "The Power of Six" was screened on the most visible project of
MGC viz. MGC Traditional Asian Textiles Museum built at Siam Reap, Cambodia
emphasizing that it was a testimony to our cultural connect as well as modern connections.
7. MGC Ministerial Meeting was held after a gap of four years since 2012. New areas have
since been added to the Work Programme such as cooperation in the field of SMEs, Rice
Germplasm, health and pandemics, Nalanda University Archival Resource Centre and
Quick Impact Projects. MGC cooperation has been expanding in the fields of trade,

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 tourism, development, movement of people and goods.

Areas of Cooperation
8. India announced 50 new ITEC scholarships for MGC countries in areas of culture,
tourism, engineering, management, teachers training, film directing, sound, lighting and
stage management in addition to 900 scholarships already given every year. New Centres
of excellence in Software Development and Training were announced. Existing capacity
building programmes in law enforcement, financial markets, ICT and space, to
supplement the requirements of MGC partners was also announced.
9. 3 Quick Impact Projects in Lao PDR and 2 in Myanmar are under consideration in
addition to 9 in Cambodia and 5 in Vietnam already under implementation.
10. MGC partners were invited as 'Guests of Honour' in the 5th International Buddhist
Conclave which was held from 2-5 October 2016 in Delhi, Varanasi and Sarnath. 275
persons from 39 countries including prominent Buddhist personalities from Cambodia,
Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam participated.
11. India drafted a Plan of Action (POA) 2016-18 which was endorsed to become the core
guideline for future action. On the future direction of MGC, it was recommended that
POA 2016-18 may be continued. ACCC+ India meeting is to be held in Surakarta,
Indonesia in March 2017. It supported extension of trilateral highway to Laos, Cambodia
and Vietnam. Cooperation in tourism, particularly in tourism-marketing, exploring tourist
destinations for outbound tourists was suggested.

Future Events

12. India will be hosting the 8th MGC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) in New Delhi on 7
April 2017. The meeting is likely to discuss the progress of the Plan of Action proposed
during the previous MGC SOM held in Vientiane, Lao PDR in July 2016. The meeting
will also discuss the preparations for the forthcoming 8th MGC Ministerial Meeting likely
to be held later this year. India will also be hosting a think tank Policy Dialogue on
‘Stronger Connectivity, Enhancing Ties’ for MGC countries in New Delhi on 8 April
2017 in association with ASEAN-India Center (AIC).

ASEAN  officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is an economic union

comprising 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental
cooperation and.facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational,
and sociocultural integration between its members and other countries in Asia. ASEAN's primary
objective was to accelerate economic growth and through that social progress and cultural
development. A secondary objective was to promote regional peace and stability based on the
rule of law and the principle of United Nations charter. With some of the fastest growing
economies in the world, ASEAN has broadened its objective beyond the economic and social
spheres. In 2003, ASEAN moved along the path of the European Union by agreeing to establish

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an ASEAN community comprising three pillars: the ASEAN security community, the ASEAN
economic community, and the ASEAN socio-cultural community. The ten stalks of rice in the
ASEAN flag and insignia represent the ten southeast Asian countries bound together in
solidarity.
ASEAN also regularly engages other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. A major
partner of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances
and dialogue partners and is considered by many as a global powerhouse, the central union for
cooperation in Asia-Pacific, and a prominent and influential organization. It is involved in
numerous international affairs, and hosts diplomatic missions throughout the world.

Member states shown in dark green.

Secretariat Jakarta
6°14.3353′S 106°47.9554′E

Largest city Jakarta

6°11.6962′S 106°49.3837′E

Working English
language

Official  Burmese
languages  Chinese
of contracting  English
states  Filipino
 Indonesian
 Khmer
 Lao

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  Malay
 Tamil
 Thai
 Vietnamese
Membership   Brunei
  Cambodia
  Indonesia
  Laos
  Malaysia
  Myanmar
  Philippines
  Singapore
  Thailand
  Vietnam
Leaders
• Secretary Lim Jock Hoi
General
Establishment
• Bangkok 8 August 1967
Declaration
• Charter 16 December 2008
Area
• Total 4,522,518km2 (1,746,154 sq mi)
Population
• 2021 estimate  667,393,019
• Density 144/km2 (373.0/sq mi)
GDP (PPP) 2021 estimate
• Total  $8.993 trillion
• Per capita  $13,475
GDP (nominal) 2021 estimate
• Total  $3.356 trillion
• Per capita  $4,849
HDI (2018)  0.723
high

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 Time zone UTC+6:30 to +9 (ASEAN)
Website
ASEAN.org
ASEAN was preceded by an organisation formed on 31 July 1961 called the Association of
Southeast Asia (ASA), a group consisting of Thailand, the Philippines, and the Federation of
Malaya. ASEAN itself was created on 8 August 1967, when the foreign ministers of five
countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, signed the ASEAN
Declaration. As set out in the Declaration, the aims and purposes of ASEAN are to accelerate
economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region, to promote regional
peace, collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest, to provide assistance
to each other in the form of training and research facilities, to collaborate for better utilization of
agriculture and industry to raise the living standards of the people, to promote Southeast Asian
studies and to maintain close, beneficial co-operation with existing international organisations
with similar aims and purposes.
The creation of ASEAN was motivated by a common fear of communism. The group achieved
greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following a change in the balance of power after the end of
the Vietnam War in 1975. The region's dynamic economic growth during the 1970s strengthened
the organization, enabling ASEAN to adopt a unified response to Vietnam's invasion of
Cambodia in 1979. ASEAN's first summit meeting, held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976, resulted in
an agreement on several industrial projects and the signing of a Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation, and a Declaration of Concord. The end of the Cold War allowed ASEAN countries
to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s, ASEAN emerged as a
leading voice on regional trade and security issues.[  On 15 December 1995, the Southeast Asian
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty was signed to turn Southeast Asia into a nuclear-weapon-free
zone. The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states had ratified
it. It became fully effective on 21 June 2001 after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning
all nuclear weapons in the region.
Expansion
On 7 January 1984, Brunei became ASEAN's sixth member[27] and on 28 July 1995, following
the end of the Cold War, Vietnam joined as the seventh member. Laos and Myanmar (formerly
Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997. Cambodia was to join at the same time as Laos
and Myanmar, but a coup in 1997 and other internal instability delayed its entry. It then joined
on 30 April 1999 following the stabilization of its government.
In 2006, ASEAN was given observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. In
response, the organisation awarded the status of "dialogue partner" to the UN.
The ASEAN Charter
On 15 December 2008, member states met in Jakarta to launch a charter, signed in November
2007, to move closer to "an EU-style community".The charter turned ASEAN into a legal entity
and aimed to create a single free-trade area for the region encompassing 500 million
people. President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated: "This is a momentous
development when ASEAN is consolidating, integrating, and transforming itself into a
community. It is achieved while ASEAN seeks a more vigorous role in Asian and global affairs

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at a time when the international system is experiencing a seismic shift". Referring to climate
change and economic upheaval, he concluded: "Southeast Asia is no longer the bitterly divided,
war-torn region it was in the 1960s and 1970s".
The financial crisis of 2007–2008 was seen as a threat to the charter's goals, and also set forth the
idea of a proposed human rights body to be discussed at a future summit in February 2009. This
proposition caused controversy, as the body would not have the power to impose sanctions or
punish countries which violated citizens' rights and would, therefore, be limited in
effectiveness. The body was established later in 2009 as the ASEAN Intergovernmental
Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). In November 2012, the commission adopted
the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.
Vietnam held the chair of ASEAN in 2020. Brunei held it in 2021.