The meetings were held on the sidelines of the 43 rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM 43) and other ASEAN-related meetings in Hanoi.

During their discussions, Deputy PM cum Foreign Minister Khiem and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith expressed delight at the special solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos which they said are increasingly growing.

The two leaders laid stress on the need for both sides to use the fine political relationship as a foundation and the economic cooperation as a key to improving the effectiveness of bilateral cooperation.

They also emphasised the importance of preparatory work for the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries from now to the end of the year as well as for the building of a Vietnam-Lao cooperation strategy for the 2011-2020 period.

Also on the same day, Mr Khiem met with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. They discussed issues of mutual concern, including coordination work to prepare for AMM 43 and related meetings in Hanoi.