India to call high-level meeting soon to revive MGC

Calling Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) one of the key points of its look east policy, India today said a high-level meeting is likely in April to revive the initiative that has been lying "dormant" for the last couple of years.
"The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation is a very important part of our engagement with our South East Asian neighbours. It is a unique forum which has a tremendous potential to become a powerful catalyst for economic development in the region.
"And, this year we well give a special push to this initiative," Secretary (East), External Affairs Ministry, Anil Wadhwa said.
The senior MEA official was speaking at the opening of the an international seminar on 'Indo-Vietnam Cultural Relations: Retrospect and Prospect' organised by the ICCR at the Azad Bhawan here.

"Mekong-Ganga Cooperation is important in other ways as it kind of brings all countries together which we wish to engage with. It (MGC) had been lying dormant for last two years or so, we have sought to revive it.
"A regional-level meeting was called lately outside of India and now we are going to have a high-level meeting in the country, sometime maybe in April, to further revive the initiative," Wadhwa told PTI on the sidelines of the event.

The MGC is an initiative by six countries - India and five ASEAN countries-- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam for cooperation in tourism, culture, education, transport and communications.

It was launched in Vientiane, capital of Laos in 2000. Both the Ganga and the Mekong are civilisational rivers that have been part of centuries of history and folklore in Asia. The initiative aims to facilitate closer people-to-people ties among the inhabitants of these two major river basins.
"Vietnam is an important pillar of our 'Look East Policy' and the MGC is also indicative of the cultural and commercial linkages among the member countries of the framework over the centuries," the senior MEA official said.