Mekong River Negotiations Kamran Soomro Shabeena Faraz Zareen

Mekong River – Negotiations Kamran Soomro Shabeena Faraz Zareen Fiza Qureshi

Mekong River • The Mekong River is also known as Mother of Water and The Nine Dragons River. • It is the 7 th longest river in Asia and the 12 th longest in the world. • It flows from Tibetan Plateau in southwestern China through the countries of Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before discharging into the South China Sea • 6 th largest of all rivers in the world as per annual discharge (475 km 3) to feed 72 million people

Bone of Contention • Proposed hydropower developments in the Mekong basin have been incredibly contentious. • China was expected to complete its 6 th dam on Mekong mainstream in 2014 and planned 23 more.

History • The Mekong regime existed since 1957 in one form or the other • Three different studies in between 1952 to 1957 led to the development program for lower Mekong basin. The 1957 Economic Commission for Asian and the Far East ECAFE‟ study was met with enthusiasm by the lower Mekong riparians.

• The second era of Mekong regime is known as “Interim Mekong Committee” of 1978 • The end of cold war era paved way for the third epoch of the Mekong regime

Factors Behind Negotiations • Water Resources • Foreign Relation • International Assistance

Water Resources • Vietnam has highest rice production in Delta but having sea intrusion issues • Thailand does not have favorable topography for development of reservoir • Cambodia affected from Vietnam war and needs agriculture development • Laos one of the poorest countries in Asia and has need for hydropower development and navigation

Foreign Relation • All the riparian states wanted to avoid or resolve conflicts and facilitate cooperation in management and development of water resources.

International Assistance • Cambodia and Laos being most underdeveloped countries of the world relied heavily up on international assistance for development. Though Thailand Vietnam were less dependent upon international assistance but it could not have been undesired. • The major source of finance the regime witnessed was to flow from bilateral aid agencies and concessionary loan from development banks.

Primary Legal Agreement • 4 lower riparian signed the Mekong agreement to regulate numerous transboundary water management issues including the construction of hydropower dams • Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, Chiang Rai, Thailand, 5 April 1995 (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam)

Options • The countries faced with three different options: • to amend the existing documents of 1957 statue & 1975 Declaration, • ii) to negotiate a completely new framework, or iii) to suspend cooperation and adhere to customary international water law • Thailand’s development and other riparian countries‟ lacking behind, gave Thailand morebarraging power in negotiation.

Third party mediation • UNDP was alarmed due to the situation, as it had contributed $50 million over the years, which was the largest development program of longest duration that it had ever supported. series of meeting for negotiation organized by UNDP as it was terrified that the regime might disappear. • To pacify the situation, it organized an informal reconciliation meeting in Hong Kong.

• UNDP further offered to provide logistics, finances and mediation support and developed Mekong Working Group (MWG).

Mekong Working Group • Four factors assisted the MWG in understanding the application of international water law to apply to their case. • First, through the long continuation of Mekong Committee and its data gathering and planning activities, the negotiators had an excellent common understanding of the physical and socio-economic attribute of the basin. • Second some members of MWG had trainings on international legal issues, funded by Asian Development Bank and European Union from 1990 -92.

Mekong Working Group • Third the senior advisor for the MWG was an expert on international water law and he assisted the MWG on customary international water law and existing international water agreements. • Finally some key members of MWG were active members of International Law Commission.

Dialogue • Between October and December 1992, the four parties drafted key issues, which later went on to form the framework of Mekong cooperation, officially approved in Hanoi on 5 th February 1993 at Mekong Working Group • The commitment amongst the parties reaffirmed cooperation for sustainable utilization of resources from Mekong River.

Agreement • A series of event during a period of 21 month led to negotiation and completion of initial the draft of Agreement on 27 November 1994:

Institutional Arrangement • The mandate was to regulate hydropower development in the basin is the Mekong River Commission ( MRC) in 1995 after the agreement • Two upstream riparians, China and Myanmar, merely participated in the discussions

Diplomatic techniques/strategic approaches • Lower riparian formed a coalition for dialogue • Through the Wheeler report, the lower riparian agreed that data will proceed any development project • Third party mediation by UNDP • Integrated benefit sharing among Laos and Thailand