The talks between Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Party General Secretary and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith in Hanoi in June 2021 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Saysomphone Phomvihane will pay an official visit to Vietnam from December 6-8 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Vuong Dinh Hue.

This is the first overseas visit by the Lao official in his new position, and also the first in-person by a foreign parliament leader to Vietnam from the beginning of its 15th tenure.

Vietnam and Laos are close neighbours, the two peoples have a traditional relation of long-lasting friendship. In July 1962, the two countries agreed to establish bilateral diplomatic relation, marking a new milestone. In Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to Laos in February 2019, the two sides agreed to lift the traditional relationship into the great traditional one. Bilateral cooperation has become more diverse, and been unceasingly consolidated and updated in terms of both quantity and quality.

In economic cooperation, Vietnam is now one of the top three investors in Laos. To intensify the mutual support, the two countries are currently accelerating economic and transport connectivity projects. Cooperation in education and training remains a priority field.

To help with Laos’s sustainable development, Vietnam has been facilitating Laos in using Piers 1, 2, and 3 at Vung Ang port; providing assistance to Lao in building key projects like schools, hospitals and roads. A point of note is that on August 10, 2021, Vietnam officially handed to Laos the new office of its National Assembly after four years of construction.

Facing the global pandemic, Vietnam was the first to send a special flight transporting medical equipment and senior experts to help Laos fight the second wave of the COVID-19.

Over the recent years, the relations between the two National Assemblies have been continuing to be accelerated which have made important contributions to the comprehensive relationship between the two countries. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders of the two law-making bodies have been maintaining their regular contacts in flexible forms.

The official visit to Vietnam by Saysomphone Phomvihane manifests the special political trust and importance from the Party, State and National Assembly of Laos as well as from him personally to Vietnam and the bilateral relations.

In the coming visit, the two sides will continue pushing up the implementation of the agreement on the cooperation between the two parliaments, exchange ideas on orientations and measures to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and parliaments in the time to come; and share experience in implementing the functions of the National Assemblies in the fields of making laws, supervising and deciding on important issues of the countries./.