Sub-Regional Co-operation in the Mekong Valley: Implications for Regional Security

Jörn Dosch

Chapter 9 in Asia-Pacific Economic and Security Co-operation, 2003, pp 152-166 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) covers some 2.3 million square km and a population of about 245 million (Figure 9.1). The post-Second World War history of GMS co-operation dates back to 1957 when the Mekong Committee was established at the initiative of the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) and four riparian countries of the Lower Mekong Basin (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and South Vietnam). However, the process only gained momentum in 1992 when, with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the six riparian states of the Mekong river – Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (or Myanmar), Laos, Vietnam and China (Yunnan Province), entered into a programme of formalised sub-regional co-operation. Since then the ADB has been the ‘catalysing force’ (Hirsch 2001: 237) for most co-operative initiatives. Furthermore as Bakker (1999) comments, ‘the river-as-resource, in a glibly bioregional metaphor, has been transformed from a Cold War “front line” into a “corridor of commerce”, drawing six watershed countries together in the pursuit of sustainable development’ (pp. 209–10).

Keywords: Foreign Policy; North American Free Trade Agreement; Asian Development Bank; Mekong River Commission; Riparian Country (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1057/9780230287327_9

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