Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao presided over the Second Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program Summit, which was held in Kunming, July 4- 5, 2005.

The "Greater Mekong River'', known as the Langcang-Mekong River, is an international strip of water more than 4,880 kilometers long. Covering an area of 810,000 square kilometers, it runs through six countries-- China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The GMS Economic Cooperation Program is a comprehensive development mechanism coordinated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In recent years, vitality has been seen again for cooperation in subregion development as countries gradually got rid of the Asian financial crisis started in 1997, and especially as China became a leading driving force for the Asian economic growth. In 2002, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, making use of the country's rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), proposed the inauguration of GMS summit, which won support from all parties. Chinese former Premier Zhu Rongji attended the summit. Three years later, Premier Wen Jiabao presided over the second summit in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. The participating leaders will coordinate all parties' interests to map out the plan for the future.

China's participation in the cooperative development of the sub-region embodies its foreign policy of "building an amicable, tranquil and prosperous neighborhood".

Geographically, the Lancang River's China section is more than 1,800 kilometers long, over one third of the river's total length. The Greater Mekong River, in fact, is a bond connecting China with the land countries in Southeast Asia, constituting a natural condition for the interdependence of the countries in the region.

Politically, China and the ASEAN are dedicated to building a strategic partnership and China has committed herself to the development with the underdeveloped countries in the area.

Economically, the region is just the overlapping area of China's development of its western region and "going global" strategy.

In security, the Greater Mekong Subregion, with mountains and rivers linked together and increasingly close economic cooperation, in which the multi-win ideal of the surrounding countries can be achieved, should naturally become a place where the "China threat'' theory is dispelled. In this process, China will build a new international relationship of "mutual trust and mutual benefit'' with small and medium-sized countries in the region. GMS is just a platform for the new international relations to come.

The five nations of the subregion -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam -- seized the strategic opportunity to push forward the smooth progress of cooperation and development.

First, they established the status of GMS program as the mainstream mechanism and fixed it in the form of a leader's summit to be held every three years.

Second, the ADB serves both the main investor and the interest coordinator acceptable to all parties concerned.

Third, it has become a consensus that only by "binding" oneself with China, a country who enjoys political stability and flourishing economy and who takes neighbors as partners, can one realize its economic development. This shows that such a move has ushered the GMS development and cooperation into a new stage. That is an active strategic choice of underdeveloped ASEAN member countries to seek development and to integrate with China's economy.

China's cooperation with the GMS countries, from supporting their national liberation and their anti-French and anti-US struggles in early days all the way to today's economic cooperation, embodies the change of times, the evolution of national interests and the change of problems they face. With a comprehensive view of the history, we can find, from separate to joint exploitation of the river, and from a variety of mechanisms to the dominant GMS program, that cooperation is the mainstream, multi-win is the goal. We should be proud for what we achieve today.

By People's Daily Online