President meets Lao Prime Minister in Vientiane

Luong reiterated the Vietnamese Party and State's consistent policy of further consolidating and strengthening the great friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Laos.

He informed the host about his highly successful talks with General Secretary and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith a day earlier.

President Luong affirmed Viet Nam's readiness to share its development experience with Laos, particularly in streamlining organizational structures to ensure a compact, efficient, and effective apparatus at both central and local levels.

Siphandone, for his part, warmly welcomed the Vietnamese President on his first State visit to Laos in his new role, hailing the visit as a reflection of the special importance Viet Nam attaches to the bilateral relationship.

Both leaders vowed to further foster political trust through the continued exchange of high-level visits, bilateral cooperation mechanisms across various sectors and the effective implementation of high-level agreements.

The host and the guest proposed accelerating key agreed-upon joint and connectivity projects, especially in transport and energy, such as the Ha Noi-Vientiane expressway and the Vientiane–Vung Ang railway.

The two sides pledged to further strengthen the pillar of national defense-security cooperation, focusing on the joint fight against terrorism and cross-border crimes, particularly drug trafficking; as well as the search and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who sacrificed their lives in Laos.

The leaders emphasized the need to boost collaboration in education-training, sci-tech, healthcare, culture, and locality-to-locality and people-to-people exchanges in border areas.

President Luong and a high-level delegation of Viet Nam arrived in Ha Noi on April 25 evening, concluding a State visit to Laos at the invitation of General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and President Thongloun Sisoulith./.