Zhang Lei and Shao Zhicheng
On August 15th, the 10th Lancang Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was successfully held in Kunming. As a sub regional cooperation mechanism jointly built by six countries, the Lancang Mekong Cooperation has been in operation for ten years since its launch in 2015, forming a “3+5+X” cooperation system, and will enter the “2.0 version” with more mature mechanisms and deeper cooperation. In the face of profound changes in the global landscape and the interweaving of regional development and security risks, the Lancang Mekong Cooperation shoulders a higher mission: with the vision of building five major homelands of “peace, tranquility, prosperity, beauty, and friendship”, to create a closer community of shared future in the surrounding areas. The core concept of the “2.0 version” of Lancang Mekong Cooperation is the symbiosis between home and country.
‘Homeland symbiosis’ refers to a regional governance model gradually formed by the Lancang Mekong countries in the practice of jointly building the five major homelands, which is oriented towards cooperation, risk sharing, and welfare sharing. The concept of “Five Great Homes” was proposed by President Xi Jinping at the 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN in 2021, and was established as a common vision for building a community with a shared future in the surrounding areas at the Central Conference on Neighborhood Work in April 2025. This concept is rooted in the “Five Worlds” concept proposed by the “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”, highlighting the Eastern wisdom of “putting family first and neighbors as companions”, in line with the cultural tradition of Asian society that values neighborly emotions, and also conforms to the cooperation path of regional countries in handling international affairs through non confrontational methods and negotiation. As a multilateral platform connecting China ASEAN cooperation and neighboring governance, the Lancang Mekong mechanism is taking the lead in becoming the forefront of practice in building the “Five Great Homes”.
The Lancang Mekong Cooperation is building a stable ‘peaceful homeland’ in the region. At the beginning of the establishment of the Lancang Mekong Mechanism, basic norms such as neighborly friendship, non-interference in internal affairs, and consensus building were established, with the principle of consultation, co construction, and sharing as the cooperative principle, continuously consolidating the institutional foundation of regional peace. Over the past decade, China has built bilateral communities of shared future with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, with frequent high-level interactions and deepening political mutual trust.
The Lancang Mekong Cooperation is building an interconnected “prosperous homeland”. As an important corridor for high-quality development of the “the Belt and Road”, the Lancang Mekong Basin is accelerating the construction of a three-dimensional connectivity system covering sea, land, air and space networks. Regional countries actively promote the integration of the “New International Land Sea Trade Channel” with the Lancang Mekong Mechanism, continuously promote the “hard connectivity” of infrastructure, the “soft connectivity” of rules and standards, and the “heart connectivity” of cultural exchanges, and further explore the “chain connectivity” path of industrial chains, supply chains, innovation chains, and talent chains. The construction of the Lancang Mekong Innovation Corridor and the Lancang Mekong Economic Development Belt continues to deepen, injecting sustained momentum into regional development.
The Lancang Mekong Cooperation is building a “beautiful home” for green growth. The “Lancang Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy and Action Framework (2023-2027)” clarifies the target path of regional environmental cooperation and promotes the implementation of the “Green Lancang Mekong Plan”. In 2024, the six countries released documents on deepening water resources cooperation and clean air initiatives, launched the Lancang Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Partner Network, and provided financial support for regional air governance through financing channels such as the Lancang Mekong Cooperation Special Fund, to promote a positive interaction between ecological protection and economic development.
The Lancang Mekong Cooperation is building a “friendly home” with people to people connectivity. Currently, China has established over 160 pairs of friendly city relations with the five Mekong countries, and the “Lancang Mekong Cultural and Art Festival” has become an important platform for cultural exchange and mutual learning between China and foreign countries. At the 10th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Lancang Mekong Cooperation in 2025, countries reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cultural exchanges and building social bonds. They actively carried out activities such as the Lancang Mekong Week, film and food festivals, and youth dialogues, and continued to promote project cooperation in areas such as poverty reduction, women’s development, and community building, so as to move “people to people” from a concept to a mechanism and from an initiative to a norm.
Looking back at the past decade, the Lancang Mekong Cooperation has become an important platform for China and neighboring countries to seek common development, promote security, and build friendship, from mechanism establishment to institutional expansion. In the coordinated construction of peace, tranquility, prosperity, beauty, and friendship, the countries of the Lancang Mekong region are steadily advancing towards the direction of “home country symbiosis” characterized by regional stability, risk co governance, connectivity, green growth, and people to people exchanges. Looking ahead to the future, the Lancang Mekong Cooperation is expected to continuously enrich its governance content, expand its institutional tools, and promote the evolution of regional governance mechanisms to a higher level on the basis of the construction of the five major homelands. With the “Lancang Mekong Cooperation 2.0 version”, it aims to build a community of shared future for the surrounding areas.