We, representatives of government agencies, research institutes, and enterprises from the Kingdom of Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, convened for the Fourth Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, from 24-25 September 2025. Centered on the theme “Water Security for Sustainable Socio-economic Development in the Lancang-Mekong Region”, we engaged in extensive and in-depth discussions on safeguarding the fundamental right to safe drinking water for all, water-saving irrigation and food security, building a climate-resilient flood and drought disaster management system, enhancing capacity building, and promoting mutual learning and youth engagement. We have reached a series of consensus and hereby issue the Joint Recommendations of the Fourth Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum:

I. We reaffirm that the six Lancang-Mekong countries share one river in one region. Under the spirit of “Shared River, Shared Future” and guided by the principles of “extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits”, deepening Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation is vital to safeguarding regional water, food and energy security and to promoting sustainable socio-economic development. We must work together to utilize, protect and manage the Lancang-Mekong River in a sustainable manner.

II. We commend the close cooperation among the six countries in actively implementing the spirit of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders’ Meetings and Foreign Ministers’ Meetings, advancing the Five-year Action Plan on Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation(2023-2027), and carrying out practical cooperation in areas including sustainable water resources development and utilization, hydrological information sharing, disaster prevention and mitigation, drinking water safety, dam safety, capacity building, and personnel training. These efforts have made positive contributions to enhancing water security and supporting sustainable socio-economic development in the Lancang-Mekong region. We highly appreciate Chinese side for sharing typhoon and torrential rainfall early warning information with the member countries. We believe the MoU on Mutual Provision of Hydrological Information of the Lancang-Mekong River Basin among Lancang-Mekong Countries once adopted will provide the six countries with reliable support for jointly addressing flood and drought challenges and enhancing water governance across the entire basin.

III. We recognize that the shared water governance philosophy helps the Lancang-Mekong region innovate water governance concepts, better address the severe challenges posed by intensifying global climate change, rapid urbanization and population growth, and accelerate the achievement of the water-related targets in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

IV. Focusing on the forum theme, we developed the following recommendations through in-depth discussions:

1. Comprehensively summarize and promote the experience of projects such as the Lancang-Mekong Sweet Springs Action, encourage mobilization of funding provided by governments, international organizations, and the private sector, and provide support and assistance to ensure equitable access to safe, affordable, and reliable drinking water for all people in the Lancang-Mekong region. We support the Water for Children Initiative (WFCI) under the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation proposed by the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center and UNICEF in collaboration with countries in the region, calling on all parties to take joint action to ensure drinking water safety for children in the region.

2.Water conservation shall be given top priority to ensure water, food and energy security. We will enhance the irrigation and drainage systems, introduce advanced, economical, and efficient water-saving irrigation technologies for improving water use efficiency and benefits, so as to safeguard water supply. 

3. Guided by a “people-oriented” and “life comes first” philosophy, we will formulate effective disaster-prevention and climate-adaptation strategies. By combining engineering and non-engineering measures, we will address the basin wide river floods and flash floods, establish and improve monitoring, forecasting, early-warning and jointly notifying systems, strengthen the typhoon and rainstorm forecasting and early-warning of the Lancang-Mekong River Basin, enhance emergency-response capabilities for extreme weather events, increase public scientific knowledge of flood and drought characteristics in the Lancang-Mekong and other basins, and strive to build a climate-resilient Lancang-Mekong basin.

4. Deepen joint research on major Lancang-Mekong basin issues, advance scientific understanding of hydrological and sediment processes, and of seasonal changes in the Tonle Sap Lake. We will strengthen sand-mining management, properly address the ecological challenges, enhance close coordination among upstream and downstream, mainstream and tributary, as well as left and right banks, and jointly improve systematic basin-wide water governance.

5. Encourage all countries to promote water-culture exchanges, enhance mutual understanding of water-management concepts and practices. Strengthen water-science education among youth, enhance the public's scientific understanding of the causes and characteristics of floods and droughts in the river basins. We will expand personnel training and vocational-education cooperation on water resources, and raise water governance capacity.

6. Continued expansion of the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Partnership Network, engaging all stakeholders committed to the sustainable utilization, protection and management of water resources in the region, so as to contribute to building a Lancang-Mekong community with a shared future of peace and prosperity.

7. Support the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center in cooperation with the other regional mechanisms including the Mekong River Commission to play active roles for sharing water governance concepts and advanced technologies among member countries, organizing and implementing more practical cooperation projects to promote exchanges and cooperation for promoting basin-wide water governance cooperation.