Hanoi - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is to meet Friday with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiva and plans to discuss the exploitation and use as well as the protection of the Mekong River, state media reported. The talks in Hanoi are also to focus on coping with the global economic crisis.
Vietnam is facing threats to its ecology, food security and the livelihoods of its people as upstream countries like China, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia build major dams on the Mekong.
Laos, Thailand and Cambodia are planning 11 large hydropower dams, which Vietnam said would limit the deposit of silt, acidify agricultural land and decimatefish stocks, affecting hundreds of thousands of fishermen and their households.
The Mekong flows through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia before ending its journey to the sea in Vietnam.
