Concept Note

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Initiative: Institutionalizing a Cooperation Regime

The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) has completed a decade as the sub-regional cooperation initiative of the riparian states of the Ganges and river Mekong. As is well known, recognizing the geo-strategic and economic realities of the post Cold War environment, India and the five South-East Asian countries of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar had undertaken the Cooperation initiative on November 10, 2000 pledging to promote trade and investment cooperation in the region along with tourism, culture, education and transportation. It was believed that there exists a natural bond or linkage among the nations based on two major rivers - Ganga and Mekong, which brings a sense of friendly association based on shared values of the past and hopes for the future. Both Civilization Rivers serve as a common platform on which greater regional cooperation can best thrive in the present dynamic context.

However, developments in the last decade reveal that the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Initiative has not been rendered primary focus in the policy matrix of the concerned nations. Regularized interaction and exchanges under the rubric of other multilateral regional initiatives like the ASEAN and BIMSTEC have dominated the attention of scholars, resulting in overlooking of the MGC initiative. The governments of the six nations are yet to provide momentum to the initiative and realize fully the potential of the MGC initiative for mutual strategic and diplomatic advantages. For example, the only major move made by the Government of India under the MGC initiative in the last few years has been the hosting of Buddhist delegates from the five member- countries of MGC in September 2007.

The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation has substantial promise to contribute to the overall regional development of South and South-East Asia. Its use of common traditional and cultural values of all the countries has the potential to facilitate sustainable development and prosperity of the sub-region. It can reap tangible economic and social gains motivated by profits and benefits and facilitated by extensive bilateral cooperation in political, economic, commercial, cultural, educational, scientific and technological fields among the countries.But the multilateral cooperation initiative may gain greater salience if the objectives of cooperation find the support of a framework of principles and rules, agreed upon at the outset by the nations themselves. This would only be possible through the articulation of a regime. Stephen D. Krasner has defined cooperation regime as “implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations.”[Krasner: 1983] Oran further states that regimes "are more specialized arrangements that pertain to well-defined activities, resources, or geographical areas and often involve only some subset of the members of international society."[Oran:1989]

Taking cue from the theoretical framework of regimes, it may be argued that a cooperation regime would encompass a coherent set of procedures, rules and norms arrived at through mutual consent of the member-states.

Global India Foundation (GIF), Kolkata, is currently engaged in a project which seeks to revive focus on Mekong Ganga Cooperation Initiative and explore the dynamics of institutionalizing a cooperative regime under the rubric of which concrete steps of cooperation can be adopted, leading to tangible results. Cultural, economic, political and security relations among the six riparian nation-states of Mekong and Ganga are inclined to regime formation. The creation of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Regime would make commitments of cooperation more credible and facilitate reciprocity. It would help to initiate and implement projects more coherently and pragmatically. This is turn would invigorate ties between India and the ASEAN countries through infrastructural development and political, cultural and economic connectivity.

The Foundation aims to serve as a nodal agency in outlining common norms, by systematically exploring the requirements, capabilities and aspirations of the specific sectors of cooperation.

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