On 1 July 2013, Mr. Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented Thailand at the 6th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Ministerial Meeting and the 3rd Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) Ministerial Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. Both Meetings were chaired by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and attended by representatives of Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam.

At the 6th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Ministerial Meeting, the Permanent Secretary expressed appreciation for the U.S.’s continued commitment to the socio-economic development of the Mekong region. He stated that the LMI has complemented existing frameworks of cooperation in the Mekong sub-region, all of which share the common goal of narrowing the economic and development gaps within ASEAN.  He also commended the LMI’s efforts to align its work with ASEAN’s objectives, especially with regard to ASEAN integration.

The Permanent Secretary highlighted four areas of LMI cooperation, namely connectivity, public health, the environment and water, and education. On connectivity, he stressed the need to harmonize cross-border rules and regulations and reaffirmed Thailand’s commitment to continuing its pro-active role in the sub-region. In the area of public health, Thailand, the U.S. and Myanmar are undertaking a trilateral project on malaria prevention and control along the Thai-Myanmar border. Such a trilateral arrangement would be a good model for future LMI projects.

On environment-related issues, the Permanent Secretary put forth two ideas for the LMI to explore, i.e., the development of integrated weather forecasting tools to help the region better prepare for natural disasters and the conduct of joint training courses on forest fire prevention and control. In the area of education, he announced that Thailand is developing Phase 2 of the “Professional Communication Skills for Leaders” Project to help the sub-region’s experts to communicate and work better with each other.  This Project would also help enhance people-to-people connectivity in the region.
 
At the 3rd Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) Ministerial Meeting, the Permanent Secretary emphasized Thailand’s role as a development partner in the Mekong sub-region. This has been done both bilaterally with individual Mekong countries and in collaboration with other development partners. Areas of development cooperation include advancing connectivity, in order to facilitate the movement of goods and people across economic corridors in the sub-region, and water management.