FRANCE KEEPS CLOSE DIPLOMATIC LINKS WITH MEKONG REGION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000033

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ECIN ELTN ETRD SENV TSPL PREL CH LA BM CB
VM, FR, TH
SUBJECT: FRANCE KEEPS CLOSE DIPLOMATIC LINKS WITH MEKONG REGION

REF: A. 08 CHIANG MAI 174 (WITHOUT BURMA, EAST-WEST CORRIDOR)

B. 08 CHIANG MAI 169 (CROSS-BORDER MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE IN GMS)

C. 07 CHIANG MAI 166 (NORTHERN THAILAND AND NORTH-SOUTH CORRIDOR)

CHIANG MAI 00000033 001.2 OF 002


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Summary and Comment
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1. (U) Summary: Public and non-profit links between France and
member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)
underscore the close diplomatic links that France maintains on
the Indochina peninsula. The GOF supports research projects
that raise awareness about key Mekong regional issues including
the downstream environmental impacts of Chinese dams on the
Mekong River basin and the socio-economic effects of expanding
trade and investment. A French Embassy-sponsored seminar showed
that educational partnerships and GOF-sponsored academic
seminars are France's main diplomatic tools for sustaining an
active role in the region.


2. (SBU) Comment: France's active engagement in the Greater
Mekong Subregion is a positive complement to China's dynamic
position in the region. While China is a driving force behind
many of the GMS's contentious issues, including hydropower
generation and increasingly competitive regional trade, France
-- through its academic and research partnerships -- is advising
GMS countries to make thoughtful and smart policy decisions that
consider environmental and socio-economic consequences. In
particular, France's relatively deeper historical links with the
lower Mekong countries explains its focus on awareness of the
downstream effects of GMS development. End Summary and Comment.

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Research Partnerships Link France to the Mekong
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3. (U) While France's strongest historical ties are to the lower
Mekong River countries, French academic institutions, with GOF
support, are extending their diplomatic reach northward to the
upper Mekong River region, referred to as the Greater Mekong
Subregion (GMS). A variety of joint research centers in the
region seek to deepen understanding of GMS policy issues and
their consequences and underscore France's active engagement.
Representatives from the French Embassy in Bangkok highlighted
these programs during the fourth annual French-Mae Fah Luang
Seminar on Mekong Studies in Chiang Rai on February 25-26 (see
para 7 for details).


4. (U) One joint program is the French-Upper Mekong Subregion
Academic Cooperation Centre at Mae Fah Luang University in
Chiang Rai. Established in 2004, the Center aims to serve as a
point of "knowledge exchange" between France and GMS countries
through research activities, graduate study, and cultural
exchange. The Center has been hosting semiannual seminars - one
on social science issues and another on science and technology
issues - since its establishment. In particular, the Center's
research focuses on sustainable development in the GMS.


5. (U) The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia
(IRASEC) is a research center under the French Foreign Ministry
that conducts studies on socio-cultural issues across Southeast
Asia. In GMS specifically, IRASEC conducted a four-year study
on regional construction and national resistance in the GMS.
The program noted several obstacles in the construction of the
GMS including the ecological consequences for the Mekong basin,
the dominant role of international organizations such as the
Asian Development Bank (ADB),and the rising risks of
trafficking issues as borders become more porous.


6. (U) Other joint French-Mekong programs include the following:

-- The Illicit Trafficking Observatory of the French Embassy in
Thailand is a publicly sponsored but independent research unit
gathering data and producing analysis of illicit trafficking
activities in the GMS.
-- The Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural
Research Development (CIRAD),which is based in Bangkok, has a
scientific and environmental mission, including research on
biological systems, emerging diseases, and water management. In
the GMS region, CIRAD hosts 26 researchers across Thailand,
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

-- Development Research Institute (IRD) is a public French
science and technology institute located in Bangkok that

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conducts research on poverty reduction, environmental hazards,
and international migration. In the GMS region, its engagement
is centered in Laos through programs such as the "Catch-Up"
program on agricultural development.

-- The Research Center and Library of the Ecole Francaise
d'Etreme-Orient (EFEO) in Chiang Mai is a satellite research
unit of EFEO that advances preservation of GMS cultural relics
such as palm leaf manuscripts in Thailand, Burma, and Laos.
EFEO maintains a network for such libraries and resource centers
across southeast Asia.

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France Raises Awareness on Regional Mekong Issues
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7. (U) Econ staff attended the French-Mae Fah Luang Seminar on
Mekong Studies in Chiang Rai on February 25-26. During the
seminar, French and GMS region researchers provided analysis on
two main GMS policy areas -- the environment and commerce.

-- L'Environnement --


8. (SBU) The downstream environmental consequences of Chinese
dams along the upper Mekong River, which include decreasing
Mekong River water levels, drying up of tributary bodies of
water, and declining volumes of fish, have been a long-standing
point of contention among GMS member countries. France's
National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS)
Researcher Dr. Bastien Affeltranger said that the primary
barrier to addressing negative environmental impacts in the
Mekong basin is a lack of information-sharing among member
countries. He asserted that the current state of
intergovernmental agreements on the exchange of Mekong
hydrological data is insufficient for full regional cooperation
on river management and environmental impacts. Established in
1995, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) is the body that should
assume this responsibility; however, China and Burma have not
signed on, leaving little international legal obligation for
data-sharing between the upper and lower Mekong countries. Dr.
Affeltranger said that China's lack of participation in the MRC
is particularly problematic because it means individual GMS
countries must negotiate bilaterally for more data on upper
Mekong hydraulics in order to better evaluate downstream
effects, information that China seems to be keeping close hold.
(Note: Our Thai contacts who have traveled into Yunnan to
observe GMS development informed us that they were not permitted
to visit a Mekong River dam.)

-- Le Commerce --


9. (U) Researchers also elaborated on changes in GMS regional
trade and economic integration and their consequences.
Chulalongkorn University Professor of Economics Dr. Suthiphand
Chirathivat shared that intra-regional trade - that is, trade
among Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, and China's
Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces - as a percentage of each country's
total trade is rising. In Thailand, where the North-South and
East-West economic corridors of the GMS meet, the change has
been most dramatic: increasing from 7.7% in 2001 to 13.6% in

2006. On average for all five GMS countries plus the two
Chinese provinces, the share of intra-regional trade has
increased from 10.8% in 2001 to 15.2% in 2005. Dr. Suthiphand
commented that GMS integration is positive for Thailand,
providing economic linkages and opportunities both to southwest
China and northeast India.


10. (U) French Embassy Thailand's Illicit Trafficking
Observatory Counselor Anne-Lise Sauterey complemented the
discussion of expanding trade by highlighting the heightened
trafficking trends that correspond to more porous international
borders. Sauterey commented that the GOF set up this
Observatory on illicit trafficking because of the lack of good
data, analysis, and communication between actors on trafficking
activities in the GMS region. The Observatory has produced
research showing rising trends of trafficking and illicit drug
seizures in the region, and indicating that one of the main
avenues for this trafficking is along the North-South corridor
through Thailand. Sauterey noted that the main audience for the
observatory's findings is law enforcement agencies and
international anti-trafficking agencies.


11. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Bangkok.
MORROW