(Source: China Net 2026-03-22)
General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to neighboring diplomacy and proposes the concept of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness in neighboring countries, leading China to open up a new realm of friendly cooperation with neighboring countries. In 2016, China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam jointly launched the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism to promote the coordinated development of the three pillars of political security, economic and sustainable development, and social and humanities. Over the past 10 years, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation has made significant progress in institutional construction, project implementation and regional recognition, and has become one of the most dynamic and practical sub-regional cooperation platforms in the Asia-Pacific region. Faced with the accelerating changes over the past century and the increasingly complex external environment, Lancang-Mekong countries are committed to building "Lancang-Mekong Cooperation 2.0" featuring unity and cooperation, openness and win-win, green innovation, peace and tranquility, jointly opening a new golden decade and accelerating the construction of a Lancang-Mekong community with a shared future for peace and prosperity.
Interconnection effectively consolidates the material foundation for the improvement and upgrading of Lancang-Mekong cooperation.Driven by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, infrastructure interconnection in the region has entered an accelerated period, cross-border transportation capabilities continue to improve, logistics costs continue to decline, and transportation networks are increasingly improved. As a key channel for regional interconnection, the China-Laos Railway will handle more than 24.5 million tons of freight in 2025, transport 5.47 million tons of cross-border goods, and expand the number of cross-border transportation commodities to more than 3,800 types, covering 19 countries and regions, promoting the regional transportation network from partial connectivity to vertical connectivity. The "Lancang-Mekong Express" is in operation on a regular basis, the New Land-Sea Corridor continues to innovate multimodal transport methods, the planning and construction of the China-Vietnam and China-Thailand railways are steadily advancing, and the three-dimensional intermodal transport system of the land, sea and sky network is accelerated.
Industrial linkage has steadily expanded the practical space for the integrated development of the Lancang-Mekong region.The cross-border logistics network continues to improve, promoting the transformation of regional cooperation from "channel transit" to "chain linkage". Relying on the backbone corridors, platform elements such as Mohan-Boten Cross-Border Economic Cooperation Zone and Vientiane Saisettha Comprehensive Development Zone are gathering at an accelerated pace. Cross-border e-commerce, cold chain logistics, electronic manufacturing and other industries are booming, promoting the transformation of "channel economy" into "hub economy" and "landed economy". The construction of the agricultural science and technology corridor on the China-Vietnam border is steadily advancing, the scale of w88 in specialty agricultural products is expanding, and cross-border cooperation in agriculture, processing and manufacturing and other fields is increasingly deepening. The efficient flow of factors and the deep integration of industries have injected stronger development momentum into the upgrade of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation to version 2.0.
Institutional construction comprehensively improves the governance efficiency of the in-depth development of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation.The continuous deepening of the connection of rules and mutual recognition of standards is pushing regional cooperation from "project-driven" to "system-led". Leveraging the institutional dividends from the effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Lancang-Mekong countries continue to promote the optimization of electronic ports, smart customs and customs clearance processes, strengthen policy coordination in customs, quarantine and other aspects, and promote cross-border flows to be more convenient and efficient. At the same time, guided by the Leaders’ Meeting, the multi-level cooperation structure of the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the Senior Officials’ Meeting and joint working groups in various fields has been continuously improved. Professional cooperation platforms such as water resources, environment, and security have continued to play a role, and a normalized and professional regional collaborative network has been accelerated. The steady advancement of mechanism construction provides a more powerful institutional guarantee for promoting the regional governance system to a higher level.
Extensive people-to-people bonds form a solid foundation for the comprehensive deepening of Lancang-Mekong cooperation.The deepening of cultural integration and dissemination of ideas is pushing regional cooperation from interest connection to value recognition. With the support of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund, a number of projects that are "down-to-earth and benefit people's livelihood", such as the "Lancang-Mekong Sweet Spring Action", "Harvest Lancang-Mekong" and the "Lancang-Mekong Agricultural Cooperation Hundreds and Thousands Action Plan", have been steadily implemented, continuing to improve people's well-being in aspects such as drinking water safety, agricultural transformation, and educational assistance. At the same time, activities such as the "Lancang-Mekong Week", "Lancang-Mekong Culture and Art Festival", "Lancang-Mekong Film and Television Week", and "Lancang-Mekong Youth Entrepreneurs Forum" continue to be carried out. The local government cooperation forum, the tourism city cooperation alliance and the sister city relationship continue to expand the breadth and depth of exchanges and interactions between the people of the six countries. The continuous deepening of value recognition has cultivated a deeper public opinion foundation for building a closer community of shared future for Lancang-Mekong countries.
In the past ten years of working together in the same boat, a development path from building a foundation for connectivity, expanding industrial linkage, upgrading institutional coordination to deepening people-to-people bonds has become increasingly clear, vividly explaining the continuous deepening of Lancang-Mekong cooperation from hard connectivity, soft connectivity to heart-to-heart connectivity. Standing at a new starting point, Lancang-Mekong cooperation is entering a critical stage of jointly building "Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Version 2.0". In the future, the six Lancang-Mekong countries will continue to carry forward the Lancang-Mekong spirit of "development first, equal consultation, pragmatism and efficiency, openness and inclusiveness", continue to improve mechanism construction, explore regional coordinated governance, cultivate a sense of the Lancang-Mekong family, work together to build a community of shared future for Lancang-Mekong countries that is peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, beautiful and friendly, and contribute valuable Lancang-Mekong wisdom and practical experience to the global southern countries in exploring new paths for regional governance.(Author: Wang Hongyu, Professor and Director of the Economic Diplomacy Research Center of the w88 casino; Pan Huixuan, Assistant Researcher of the Economic Diplomacy Research Center of the w88 casino)
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