Washington, 6 August 2021 (TDI): The Secretary of the United State of America, Antony Blinken headed the tenth-anniversary meeting of friends of Mekong ministerial, on Thursday. He praised the friends of The Mekong for their economic, peace, development, and good governance achievements in the last ten years. He noted the assistance of more than $25 million provided to the subregion provided by them, since 2015. He assured the US support for the development of the Mekong sub-region by the Mekong-US partnership. He reiterated the significance of its rivers for ASEAN.
Blinken urged the press to hold the Burmese military accountable and to end the violence, along with the release of the detainees. This will ultimately bring Burma back to the path of democracy.
United States, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Republic of Korea, Japan, European Union, New Zealand, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Mekong River Commission Secretariat is included in the friends of Mekong, while India, ASEAN secretariat and the UK participated as observers.
