Top Vietnamese legislator to pay official visit to Laos, attend AIPA-45

The tour will be made at the invitation of Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Saysomphone Phomvihane, the Vietnamese National Assembly's Committee for External Relations announced Monday.

On September 5, 1962, Viet Nam and Laos officially established their diplomatic relations, marking a new page in the relationship between the two countries, affirming the bond of the destiny of the two peoples in the fight for national liberation and reunification.

To bring bilateral relations into comprehensive and in-depth development, on July 18, 1977, the two nations signed the Viet Nam-Laos Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.

The two-way trade between Viet Nam and Laos reached US$1.1 billion in the first seven months of 2024, up 16.7 percent over the same period last year.

At present, Vietnamese enterprises have funded over 240 projects in Laos with total registered capital of more than US$5.5 billion, making Viet Nam the third-largest foreign investor there after China and Thailand.

Since Viet Nam officially joined the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) on September 19, 1995, the Vietnamese National Assembly has been playing its active, proactive and responsible role together with other members in promoting the central role, solidarity and unity of the bloc, strengthening intra-bloc cooperation, expanding all-round parliamentary cooperation with countries inside and outside the region.

The Vietnamese National Assembly has contributed many ideas at AIPA general assemblies, including the initiative to form the AIPA Advisory Group and an initiative to expand the participants at AIPA meetings to include non-AIPA members.

The Vietnamese NA has hosted the AIPA general assembly three times in 2002, 2010 and 2020./.