Vietnam President to visit Laos next week

This will be his first foreign trip since taking office last month.

Vietnam and Laos established relations in September 1962. In February 2019, the two sides agreed to raise the level of “traditional friendship” to “great friendship”.

Vietnam currently has 219 investment projects in Laos with a total registered capital of about $4.3 billion, ranking third after China and Thailand.

Vietnam last year launched five new projects in Laos and increased investment in four others with a total value of $70 million, up nearly 50% from 2021.

Two-way trade turnover reached nearly $1.7 billion in 2022, an increase of more than 25%.

In 2022, Vietnam gave Laos 1,155 scholarships. Laos offered Vietnam 60 scholarships. Some 14,000 students from Lao studied at 160 educational institutions in Vietnam last year.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defense and security cooperation between the two countries continues to be strengthened.

Vietnam and Laos have also been working together to search for and repatriate the remains of Vietnamese volunteers and experts who died in Laos.

The two countries are also working to strengthen border control, prevent illegal entry and exit, and manage issues related to security and social order, human trafficking, transnational crime and especially drug trafficking and transportation.