Meeting with H.E Mr. Christian Berger. German Ambassador to Cambodia (February 25, 2021)

Phnom Penh: With the high permission of His Excellency the Chairman of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee (CNMC), H.E. Mr. Te Navuth, Permanent Vice-Chairman of CNMC, led the colleagues including Excellences, Secretary General, Advisor, Deputy Secretary General and Directors of the relevant specialized Departments of CNMC General Secretariat for a Meeting with H.E Mr. Christian Berger. German Ambassador to Cambodia and his colleagues to continue discussions on the ways to strengthen sustainability considerations within the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which was discussed earlier at the politicy-level consultation on development cooperation between Cambodia and Germany for 2020 held on September 30, 2020 at the Council for Development of Cambodia.

During the Meeting, the two sides discussed the Mekong challenges, including climate change, floods and droughts, declining water levels in the Mekong River, as well as in the Tonle Sap Lake due to the development of hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin and flooding due to deforestation in the Basin. In addition, Projects in Cambodia's National Indicative Plan (NIP) were also discussed.

The Cambodian side thanked the German side for the German support to the Mekong River Commission and to Cambodian on trans-boundary flood and drought management cooperation project between Cambodia and Thailand, joint environmental monitoring and wetland management. The Cambodian side viewed that strengthening cooperation, partnership and joint efforts is an important approach for the sustainable management and development of the Mekong Basin and the continued implementation of joint and transboundary projects for trans-boundary water resources management cooperation, such as transboundary flood and drought management project between Cambodia and Thailand being supported by the German side, is really important.

In addition to the above assistance, the German side was also interested in managing the forest in the Mekong Basin, which will help reduce flooding, and the Embassy Officials will discuss with relevant Ministries and Institutions of Cambodia and further discuss at the regional level. In this forest context, the Cambodian side requested the German side to assist bilaterally in establishing the River Basin Management Committee in 3S Areas (Se Kong, Se San, Sre Pok), supporting to multi-sectoral management, including forest management, and proposes the construction of irrigation systems to reduce floods and drought risk and disaster in the context of climate change. During the talks, the German side accepted the Cambodian side's request for consideration and requested the CNMC to send those requests in an official letter.