Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone in Vientiane
WVR - On the afternoon of February 5, in Vientiane, Laos, within the framework of General Secretary To Lam's state visit to Laos, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone. (Source: VNA) |
Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone expressed his pleasure at meeting Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh again. He sincerely thanked and highly appreciated the determination of the Vietnamese government, under the close leadership and direction of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, in enhancing the great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic connection between Vietnam and Laos effectively and practically.
Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone affirmed that General Secretary To Lam's state visit holds special historical significance for the bilateral relations, with the participation of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, reflecting the high political trust and enduring bond between the two Parties, States, and peoples of Laos and Vietnam.
Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone warmly congratulated and highly appreciated the significant, comprehensive achievements Vietnam has attained recently. He acknowledged the role of the Vietnamese government in the 2021-2025 term, with notable contributions to socio-economic development, macroeconomic stability, improving people's lives, and laying a crucial foundation for a new development phase. He expressed confidence that Vietnam will continue to achieve greater successes in implementing the 14th Party Congress Resolution.
The Lao Prime Minister valued Vietnam's timely and effective support for Laos over the years and suggested both sides continue to enhance economic, trade, and investment cooperation. He emphasized the importance of advancing infrastructure, energy, agriculture, education, and human resource development projects, affirming readiness to facilitate stable, long-term investment and business by Vietnamese enterprises in Laos.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated Laos on its significant, comprehensive, and historically meaningful achievements over 40 years of renovation. He also congratulated the successful 12th Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, affirming the great strength of national unity and the steadfast pursuit of comprehensive renovation for the sustainable development of Laos along the socialist orientation.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated Sonexay Siphandone on being re-elected to the Politburo of the 12th Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, reflecting the trust and high regard of the Lao Party and people for his capabilities, reputation, and important contributions to Laos' development. He expressed confidence that under Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone's decisive leadership, the Lao government will successfully implement the 10th Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Plan (2026-2030), contributing to the successful realization of the 12th Party Congress Resolution and building a peaceful, independent, autonomous, prosperous Laos with an increasingly high regional and international standing.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone updated each other on the socio-economic development of their respective countries and future development goals to effectively implement each country's Party Congress Resolution. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shared Vietnam's notable achievements and important contributions in the 2021-2025 term, affirming the determination to effectively implement the 14th Resolution from the outset to achieve the dual centennial goals: by 2030, becoming a developing country with modern industry and upper-middle income, and by 2045, becoming a developed, high-income country.
Discussing bilateral cooperation, the two leaders expressed satisfaction with the impressive, comprehensive cooperation results achieved recently, materialized into many important task groups. Accordingly, Vietnam-Laos political-diplomatic relations continue to be strengthened and elevated to the highest level of trust, with both sides agreeing to add new content to the bilateral relationship as a "strategic connection," defined as a long-term political commitment closely linked in vision, interests, and actions.
Both sides agreed that defense-security cooperation continues to play a pivotal role, contributing to ensuring security, safety, and stability for each country. Economic, trade, and investment cooperation has seen remarkable development, becoming a crucial driver in bilateral relations.
The two Prime Ministers also highlighted the outstanding results in trade and investment cooperation, banking, and finance between the two countries. With joint determination and efforts, Vietnam-Laos bilateral trade has surged, reaching nearly USD 3 billion by 2025; Vietnamese investment in Laos exceeded USD 5.6 billion, a sevenfold increase compared to 2024, raising the total cumulative capital to USD 6.21 billion with 276 projects, making Laos the top recipient of Vietnamese overseas investment projects.
Financial-banking cooperation has seen significant, groundbreaking changes, notably the announcement and implementation of a local currency payment framework and bilateral retail payment connection via QR codes, reducing dependence on intermediary currencies, facilitating trade, investment, and tourism between the two countries, and demonstrating proactive and responsive approaches to modern bilateral monetary transaction trends globally.
Additionally, the two Prime Ministers were pleased with the notable achievements in education-training, culture, and tourism cooperation; currently, nearly 11,000 Lao students are studying in Vietnam. The two countries successfully collaborated in heritage conservation, with UNESCO recognizing the first transboundary World Natural Heritage in the region, the Hin Nam No National Park - Phong Nha - Ke Bang (July 2025); Laos recognized the Ho Chi Minh Trail on Lao soil as a national heritage.
The leaders appreciated the focused resolution of long-standing projects and obstacles, while accelerating the progress of important cooperation projects. Five exemplary projects have been inaugurated and handed over, including: Wharf No. 3 - Vung Ang Port; Drug Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane; Laos-Vietnam Friendship Park in Vientiane; Friendship Hospital in Houaphanh Province; and the basic completion and preparation for the transfer of the Population and Citizen Identity Management System Project to Laos.
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| Scene of the meeting between the two sides. (Source: VNA) |
Regarding future cooperation directions, the two leaders emphasized the importance of implementing key tasks, specifically materializing the "strategic connection" content. They agreed to instruct ministries and sectors to continue extensive exchanges, concretize high-level agreements between the two countries, and quickly implement new strategic cooperation projects in energy, transportation, minerals, education, human resource training, and digital transformation. This will enhance substantive and effective connections, further deepening the special solidarity between the two countries in the new development phase.
On the occasion of the traditional Lunar New Year, Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone extended the best wishes to the Vietnamese Government and people, wishing for the great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic connection between Vietnam and Laos in the new development phase.
