The Mekong River Commission (“MRC”) governs the allocation and utilization of the Mekong River waters by four countries – Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. The MRC was founded in 1995 pursuant to the Agreement on the Cooperation for Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin (the “1995 Agreement”), which was signed and entered into force at Chiang Rai, Thailand on 5 April 1995. On 5 April 2010, the heads of state of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos met in Hua Hin, Thailand for the first MRC Summit to mark the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the 1995 Agreement. The parties adopted a joint declaration—the Hua Hin Declaration—reaffirming their commitment to implementing the 1995 Agreement. The 1995 Agreement was the result of more than 40 years of regional and supra-regional efforts to manage the resources of the Mekong River Delta. In the mid-1950s, the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (“ECAFE”) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent teams to the Mekong to examine water management issues. Both ECAFE and the U.S. Government published detailed reports of their findings. Tiếp tục đọc “International Waters Governance – Mekong” →