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Mississippi-Mekong rivers sisterhood mooted
Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 07/24/2009
http://www.topnews.in/mississippimekong-rivers-sisterhood-mooted-2193127
Phuket, Thailand - A proposal to make the Mississippi and Mekong
"sister rivers" has won the support of US Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton and her counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and
Vietnam, officials said Friday.
Clinton met the foreign ministers of the four countries along the
lower Mekong River Thursday at the tail end of a South-East Asian
foreign ministers meeting held this week on Phuket, a Thai island 600
kilometres south of Bangkok.
"The ministers welcomed, in particular, the initiative of the Mekong
River Commission and the Mississippi River Commission to pursue a
'sister river' partnership to share expertise and best practices in
areas such as climate change adaptation, flood and drought management,
hydropower and impact assessment, water demand and food security,
water resource management and other common concerns," a US press
release said.
Clinton arrived in Phuket Wednesday to attend the ASEAN Regional
Forum, Asia's main security event, which gathered foreign ministers
from the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations and
17 of their main partners.
It was the first time for Clinton to attend a major ASEAN event and
heralded the importance the new US administration has placed on its
partners in South-East Asia, she said.
"The United States is back in South-East Asia," Clinton told a press
conference Wednesday night.
"US President [Barack] Obama and I believe this region is vital to
global progress, peace and prosperity," she said.
As proof of the renewed US interest in the region, it plans to open a
permanent mission at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta and to soon ask
Congress to increase USAID funding seven-fold for climate-change
projects for ASEAN members.
Clinton also presided over the first US-Lower Mekong Ministerial
Meeting Thursday night, whose discussions focused on health, education
and infrastructure development.(dpa)
Mississippi, Mekong commissions' plan to share experience welcomed
International Water Power and Dam Construction. 24 July 2009
http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=130&storyCode=2053672
Governments of the Lower Mekong River - Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand
and Vietnam - have given special welcome to the plan for the
Mississippi River Commission to share experience to help their
development efforts for the cross-border basin.
They welcomed the initiative for a 'sister river' partnership to be
developed, which came as part of the talks between their Foreign
Ministers and the US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The partnership would see expertise and best practices shared in a
range of areas, including climate change adaptation, flood and drought
management, hydro power and impact assessment, water demand and food
security, and water resource management.
The US and the Lower Mekong countries were holding their first senior
government level meeting to discuss environment, health, education and
infrastructure development, and other areas of common interest, they
said in a joint statement.
The meeting was held yesterday in Phuket, Thailand |
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