(VOVworld) – Vietnam and the US praised the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) and the role of its members and promised to promote the program.

Participants at the seminar (Photo: Nhat Quynh-Huy Hoang, VOV)

In a seminar to broaden cooperation on Wednesday in Washington, co-organized by the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and the US State Department, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh recognized the increasingly diversified and expanded LMI as an important effort in US-ASEAN relations. Vinh praised the US government and businesses for their active involvement in boosting the LMI. US Acting Assistant Secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun said at the seminar “So far, we’ve had excellent cooperation from all countries in the initiative. We had working group meetings in many of these countries. Last year, for example, Laos hosted working groups’ meetings. This year, Vietnam also hosted working groups meetings. So I think there’s a very high degree of enthusiasm from all participants.”

Participants exchanged their experiences in cooperation in education, water resource management, agricultural development, and the involvement of enterprises under the public-private partnership model.

Nhat Quynh, VOV correspondent in the US