President Tran Dai Quang hails Lao leader's visit

Meeting with the Lao leader in Hanoi on December 20th, the President congratulated the Lao Party, State and people on impressive achievements they have made over the past three decades of renewal. He hoped that Laos will reap more successes in its future development.

He expressed his delight at the fruitful bilateral ties in various areas like politics, security and defence, economy, education, culture, science and technology, which are all important to maintain stability and bolster socio-economic development in each nation.

President Quang hailed the close collaboration between the two countries in organising the Vietnam-Laos Solidarity and Friendship Year 2017, which is an important event in the bilateral relations.

He asked both sides to continue close coordination to improve existing cooperation mechanisms, further cooperation in security and defence, and promptly address difficulties to ensure the efficiency of bilateral economic and trade ties.

Bounnhang Vorachith, for his part, congratulated Vietnam on the successful hosting of the APEC Year 2017 and expressed his sympathy over human and property losses Vietnam has suffered in recent storms and floods.

He appraised giant strides in the bilateral relations in the past time while informing the Vietnamese leader about the activities held in Laos within the friendship year to mark 40 years of the signing of the Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and the 55th anniversary of the diplomatic ties.

At the meeting, the two leaders stressed that both sides need to exchange information in a timely manner and support each other at regional and international forums, especially the UN, ASEAN and Mekong Sub-region cooperation mechanisms, to maintain regional and global peace, security, stability and development.

The Lao leader invited President Tran Dai Quang and his spouse to visit Laos at an appropriate time, and the later accepted the invitation with pleasure./.