Chinese leader's first foreign trip in 2018 sends signal of good neighborliness

INNOVATIVE LMC MECHANISM

Drinking from the same Lancang-Mekong river, the six riparian countries share common interest in development and people's livelihood.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.

Initiated by China in 2014, the LMC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism connecting six developing countries along the river. It focuses on five priority areas of cooperation: connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, as well as agriculture and poverty reduction.

"The Lancang-Mekong cooperation is a very important platform and its sustainable development will ensure stability and prosperity on Indo-China Peninsula, which has strategic significance for regional countries," Hu Zhengyue said.

With progress and results delivered daily, a remarkable LMC speed featuring efficiency and pragmatism had been created, said Wang Yuzhu, director and research fellow of the Center for APEC and East Asian Cooperation from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adding that the LMC model will become a new platform for regional integration of developing countries.

STRONGER CHINA-ASEAN COOPERATION

On China-ASEAN cooperation, the sound development of the LMC is conducive to ASEAN because an important but thorny issue in the bloc's integration process is to narrow the development gap between its members, Hu said.

"China's participation in the LMC will help ASEAN's efforts in this aspect (narrowing the disparity between its member countries) and help deepen China-ASEAN cooperation," he said.

Most of the LMC's 45 Early Harvest Projects have been completed and recorded substantive progress, which also contributes to the cooperation between China and ASEAN.

"The visit has demonstrated the importance China attaches to its relations with neighboring countries, especially with ASEAN," said Guo Yanjun, director of the Institute of Asian Studies of China Foreign Affairs University. "A prosperous ASEAN that enjoys development and integration is also conducive to promoting our major-country diplomacy."

GOOD NEIGHBORS AND WIN-WIN COOPERATION

According to Hu Zhengyue, China's neighborhood diplomacy that features amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness is the country's "top priority."

China benefits from regional stability and its neighbors also benefit from China's development.

For the long-term win-win cooperation in the region, a LMC culture featuring equality, sincerity, mutual assistance and kinship should be a common pursuit, said Liu Chang, a research fellow from China Institute of International Studies.

People-to-people and cultural exchanges will be the "soul" to cultivate the LMC culture, thus stimulating a strong vitality and benefiting the six peoples in the future, said the expert.