PHNOM PENH — Premier Li Keqiang said on Jan 10 that leaders of the Lancang-Mekong countries reached consensus relevant to their shared future at the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders’ meeting.

Leaders of China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam agreed to deepen cooperation with the principle of equality, inclusiveness and real action, Premier Li, one of the co-chairs of the meeting, said at a news conference held after the event.

The six countries also passed two major documents, namely the five-year action plan and the Phnom Penh Declaration for this year’s meeting, according to Premier Li.

Discord often arises among countries on the upstream and downstream of a river, he said, noting that China wants to effectively handle the relationship of such kind and accommodate interests of all countries to build a community with a shared future for the Lancang-Mekong nations.

“China needs a peaceful neighboring environment to facilitate its modernization drive and poverty reduction. We propose to build the LMC mechanism due to the high complementarity between China and the other five countries,” he said.

Initiated by China in 2014, the framework spans connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, and agriculture and poverty reduction, benefiting dozens of millions of people living on the waterway.

The Lancang River originates on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Southwest China. It is called the Mekong River as it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.