Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam embraced the program in the Tokyo Declaration, adopted during the first summit meeting involving these countries that began Friday in the Japanese capital.
The initiative, which will kick off next year, is in appreciation of the "Hatoyama Initiative," proposed by the Japanese leader in September to provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries that are working on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Japan hosted the two-day event against the backdrop of its stepped-up efforts to support the countries along the Mekong River in order to secure influence and investment opportunities in the region amid China's growing presence there.
To encourage the region's further development, Japan pledged more than 500 billion yen in official aid to the countries over the next three years from fiscal 2010, which begins next April.
As a regional vision, Japan and the Mekong countries agreed that the region should aim to contribute actively to the integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and to the building of an East Asian community in the long term, based on such principles as openness and transparency.
The creation of a regional bloc that might ultimately amount to an Asian version of the European Union is a notion Hatoyama has eagerly embraced. Should such a bloc be realized, ASEAN, to which the five countries belong, is believed to form its core, along with Japan, China and South Korea.
Given the need to close economic disparities within ASEAN to ensure greater integration, Japan and the Mekong countries agreed to continue to work on enhancing both "hardware" and "software" infrastructure in the region.
With regard to the software, Japan pledged to implement various programs aimed at skill enhancement, including one designed to train officials in customs clearance, which would help companies make more efficient use of roads and bridges in the region.
Under the green initiative, Japan and the other five will boost cooperation in environmental conservation "so that the Mekong region can achieve a 'Green Mekong' with lush greenery, rich biodiversity and resilience to natural disasters through measures including reforestation," according to the declaration.
Concrete plans are expected to be hammered out when senior government officials of these countries meet in the first half of next year.
The countries also said they will work together on managing the water resources of the vast river system, while committing themselves to helping bring about a successful outcome to the climate change conference in Copenhagen next month.
On Myanmar, which has remained under military rule for decades, Japan and the Mekong countries, including Myanmar itself, declared that they expect it to take more positive steps toward democracy, adding that they believe the general elections in the country next year would be held democratically with the participation of all political parties.
The joint declaration did not address Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro- democracy leader, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years.
Japan and the Mekong countries urged North Korea to fully comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions punishing Pyongyang for its nuclear and ballistic missile activities and to return swiftly to the six- party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
Hatoyama will meet bilaterally with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Laotian Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung later in the day.
