On 30 September 2015, the United States hosted the Informal Lower Mekong Initiative Senior Officials’ Meeting (Informal LMI SOM) on the sidelines of the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, with Assistant Secretary Mr. Daniel R. Russel, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Department of State, as Chair of the Meeting and Mr. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs, as Head of the Thai delegation. High level representatives from LMI Member Countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam) also attended this meeting.

 

            LMI Member Countries expressed their support for the U.S. “Re-engagement with Asia” policy and discussed possible signature/ flagship projects to be taken up such as the prevention and control of infectious diseases, emergency preparedness and disaster relief, as well as border management. The Meeting also agreed that LMI cooperation should be based on the principle of complementarity with other Mekong subregion frameworks and mutual benefit.

 

            As a donor country and dialogue partner, the U.S. expressed its readiness to share experiences and knowledge with LMI countries in a number of capacity-building programs, especially the creation of a data portal concerning statistics of the Mekong River. The U.S. also announced that it would contribute a USD 500,000 grant to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) for conducting studies and research on the impact of the Mekong River development on people, the economy and environment in the LMI region.