H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand, participated in the 10th Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting via videoconference. He emphasized the importance of promotion of peace in Mekong subregion, promotion of human resource development, strengthening the private sector, enhancing environmental cooperation and expanding partnership with development partners.

On 28 September 2020, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand participated in the 10th Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which was co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. The Meeting reviewed past achievements, discussed regional and global issues, as well as exchanged views on future directions, with the emphasis on continued cooperation to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure sustainable economic recovery.

On this occasion, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand commended the Republic of Korea’s important role in the development of the Mekong Sub-region over the past 10 years. He also shared his views on future direction in line with the New Southern Policy, namely the promotion of peace as a prerequisite for economic and social development, the promotion of human resource development to ensure people’s resilience in the face of COVID-19 and Thailand’s commitment to concrete implementation of the third Action Plan between the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) (2020-2022), and strengthening the private sector, especially MSMEs development and incubation, digitalisation and e-commerce, which will help sustain regional supply chain. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs also called for enhancing environmental cooperation and expanding partnership with development partners through the promotion of synergy and complementarity between the Mekong-ROK cooperation and other regional cooperation frameworks.

The Meeting adopted two outcome documents: the Co-Chairs’ Statement of the 10th Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and the Mekong-ROK Plan of Action (2021-2025), reaffirming member countries’ commitment to enhancing cooperation for People, Prosperity and Peace in the Mekong sub-region.

The Mekong-ROK cooperation framework, established in 2011, aims to promote friendship and cooperation in political, economic, social and cultural areas among member countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the ROK). The cooperation has been elevated to the Leaders' level following the Inaugural Mekong-ROK Summit in Busan on 27 November 2019.