Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Mechanism as the name suggests it’s a cooperation of two civilizations residing around the said rivers. The Mekong River passes through the six Asian countries like China, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam but Country China is not part of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Mechanism and the Ganga River passes through four countries, India, Nepal, China, and Bangladesh. India being the major country in the basin of Ganga plays an important role.
On November 10, 2000, The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Mechanism was established at Vientiane to promote tourism, culture, education and transportation among the six-member countries. The member countries agreed to have an annual meeting for the purpose of working on the agenda. Each Country was made head of the working groups made in the meetings. The Thailand, India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam are the leading country of the Working group of Tori sum, Education, Culture, Communication and Transportation, Plan of Actions respectively.
It is pertinent to mention here that the relation among the MGC countries is not only economic but also based on the Cultural aspects of the Nations. The agendas include Transportation and Communication to promote tourism, education and culture of these Nations. Which builds a deep relationship among the Nations that is beyond the purpose of making a profit in the capitalist world. The relationship extends to the common man by the way of tourism, culture and education etc.
India’s initiative is based on its “look east policy” which is now re-named as “Act East Policy” which was launched in November 2014 at the East Asia summit in Myanmar. The objectives of the policy include various agendas with the goal i.e. to promote bilateral relation with the Asia-Pacific region and promote Indian values and improve the economic relation with those countries by the way to bilateral and multilateral talks and summits etc. India emphasized increasing interaction of the North-Eastern Indian states with other neighbouring countries. Also, looked for few alternatives to improve traditional business by focusing more on the Pacific countries and the South East Asian Countries. India always tried to make good relation with the ASEAN countries but the relationship was never so smooth. Beginning from the cold world era till now the Nations have faced many changes in their relations with each other. This cooperation is one of the big examples of good relationships among the nations.
The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation functions on the basis of the annual meet of the Nations, where they discuss the upcoming projects, implementation of previously decided projects and also discuss the ways and agendas to achieve the goal of this corporation. Its main agenda was four but with time in various meetings, it added more of such agendas and improved the relationship between the member countries.
The latest and 11th Mekong Ganga Cooperation Senior Officials’ Meeting (11th MGC SOM) was held in New Delhi on 9 July 2019. The recent meeting of the senior officials reviewed the 9th and 10th ministerial meetings. The 9th MGC meeting of 2018 agreed for a corporation in seven areas including tourism and culture; education; science and technology; traditional medicine and health; agriculture and allied sectors; water resources management; transportation and communication; and small and medium enterprises. It also discussed the MGC’s Draft Plan of Action (2019-2022) which was adopted in the 10th MGC ministerial meeting of 2019.
A total of 24 projects have been completed so far under the Mekong Ganga Cooperation, including 15 projects in Cambodia and 9 in Vietnam at a cost of USD 1.2 million, generating a significant positive impact among beneficiary communities. Which is to be considered as a good way to build the relationship with ASEAN countries for India. The two countries where the project was implicated took great benefit arising out of such treaties and deals.
India signed a development programme for Rakhine State in Myanmar in late 2017 which was designed to assist the Myanmar government in Rakhine State to build housing infrastructure for displaced persons, which senior Indian officials said was appreciated not just by the government of Myanmar but also by the United Nations and other agencies. More than 700,000 minority Rohingya Muslims fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh in August 2017, triggering a massive refugee crisis.
As per the latest information received India will carry projects for the development of the Myanmar Province Rakhine, Rakhine is the homeland of the Rohingya community. Which will include handing over 200 houses to Mayanmar built for Rakhine State under the Rakhine State Development Programme for $25M for a period of five years. Rakhine is known for the military campaign against the Rohingya who were forced to live in refugee camps in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh. The two countries agreed to have major 12 projects including a State development programme under the MGC mechanism.
Since the establishment of MGC, India’s trade with Mekong countries has increased substantially. India’s total trade with Mekong countries in the year 2000 was just a mere US$ 1.32 billion, which increased to US$ 19.31 billion in 2015. Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar are the top three trading partners of India in MGC. India’s trade with Mekong countries has also been witnessing a compositional shift over time. Trade-in goods between them have also witnessed the transformation from trade in commodities to finished goods (pharmaceuticals) and intermediate products (automobile parts and components).
However, India’s pattern of trade with Mekong countries is relatively asymmetric, thereby implying high unlocked trade potential. The trade relations between India and Mekong countries have received a fillip through ASEAN-India FTA, implemented in 2010, that India has set free over 4000 products by 2016. Services and investment were added in 2015, adding another momentum to the trade and investment relations between India and ASEAN. Presumably, Mekong countries have gained relatively higher market access in India and so also India in MGC. There have been significant developments in agriculture, processed food, machinery, electrical and electronics, travel and tourism, education sectors.
Summing up, The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation aims to promote cultural harmony among the member countries by promoting tourism and education among the member countries. Initially, it had four main agendas which extended to other fields like science, agriculture, health, water resources etc. The corporation has achieved many goals so far and is ready with the new goals for 2019-2022. The successful annual meeting of the heads is a symbol of the healthy emerging relations of the member country. The targets made in the initial meetings are achieved and a new road map to achieve the newly made targets is well-drafted and implemented.
The corporation is another major step towards its “Act East Policy” and to improve the relations with the ASEAN countries to have global value. The Rakhine incident is important between India and Myanmar in terms of their economic, political and cultural relations. The corporation is one of the elements of Indian Foreign policy and taking Indian values to new heights. The member nations are contributing with each other in many ways which is a good way of improving India’s position around the globe.

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