Top Lao leader’s Vietnam visit crucial to bilateral great friendship
The official visit to Vietnam by General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith, from June 28-29, is a significant event in the great friendship and special solidarity between the two countries.
This is the first overseas trip by Thongloun Sisoulith in his capacity as Lao Party General Secretary and President for the 2021-2026 tenure. This is also the first high-ranking Party and State delegation of Laos to visit Vietnam after the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).
It contributes to affirming the two countries’ foreign policies of attaching great importance to preserving and continuously developing the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation, and deepening the close and trusting relations between leaders of the two Parties and countries in the time ahead.
Over the past more than eight decades, the traditional relationship and close-knit, faithful ties between Vietnamese and Lao peoples, founded by Vietnam’s President Ho Chi Minh and Presidents Kaysone Phomvihane and Suphanouvong of Laos, and promoted by generations of the two countries’ leaders and peoples, have become an invaluable asset shared by the two nations.
The two countries signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation on July 18, 1977, creating a firm legal foundation for the enhancement and expansion of the special ties in the new period, and a foundation for the two sides to reach a range of cooperation agreements later.
Vietnam and Laos have also provided mutual support in their reform process, and both have reaped significant achievements in economy, and social and foreign affairs. Notably, the bilateral political ties have developed more intensively, extensively and firmly.
Despite the complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021, the two countries maintained a number of high-level meetings in suitable forms.
Cooperation in national defence and security has also been enhanced and proven more fruitful.
Vietnam is one of the three biggest investors in Laos. Two-way trade in the first five months of this year when the COVID-19 was still ravaging exceeded US$570 million, up 25% year-on-year.
The two countries have continued to prioritise cooperation in education and training. Vietnam grants up to 1,220 scholarships to Lao students this year.
Thongloun Sisoulith’s selection of Vietnam for his first overseas trip after he was elected as the top Party and State leader of Laos will help consolidate and deepen the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation, bringing pragmatic interests to peoples of both sides.
