VZCZCXRO0305
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHVC
DE RUEHCHI #0033/01 0640912
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 050912Z MAR 09
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0990
INFO RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 0963
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0003
RUEHVN/AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE PRIORITY 0015
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH PRIORITY 0007
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 0009
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY PRIORITY 0011
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON PRIORITY 0035
RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1072

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 
 
 
------------------- 
Summary and Comment 
------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Research Partnerships Link France to the Mekong 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶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 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000033  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
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. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
France Raises Awareness on Regional Mekong Issues 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶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