NA Chairwoman appreciative of Lao FM’s visit to Vietnam

National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan greets Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith (L)

The top Vietnamese legislator hosted a reception in Hanoi on December 24 for Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith who is on an official visit to Vietnam for the sixth Vietnam-Laos Foreign Ministerial Political Consultation.

The top Vietnamese legislator praised the two sides for actively maintaining and promoting this mechanism, thereby strengthening information exchange, coordination, and cooperation more effectively, as a contribution to the successful fulfillment of tasks assigned by the two countries's Parties and Governments with a view to further fostering Vietnam-Laos special relationship.

Despite facing numerous difficulties due to natural disasters such as floods and droughts, the socio-economic situation of Laos is seeing remarkable progress with its GDP reaching a relatively high growth rate of 6.4% in the region. Security and political stability have been maintained; most of 2019 targets have been achieved; Laos' role and stature position are increasingly enhanced regionally and globally.

The Vietnamese NA leader described 2019 as a fruitful year of bilateral relations with a host of external activities and important high-level visits. The bilateral cooperation mechanisms have also been strengthened, especially in politics-diplomacy, economics, and border.

She attributed these achievements to the considerable contributions by the two countries’ foreign ministries, adding that bilateral parliamentary ties have been solidified within the framework of the cooperation agreement signed in 2017.

Both sides offered mutual support at both regional and world inter-parliamentary forums, while maintaining high-level delegation exchanges, Ngan told her guest.

For his part, the Lao diplomat extended the best regards of the Lao National Assembly Chairwoman Pany Yathotou to Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

He briefed his host on the earlier workshop held by the two foreign ministries on economic diplomacy, saying this created a good chance for the two sides to share experience in the field.

Saleumxay Kommasith congratulated Vietnam on assuming the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2020, and affirmed his nation’s willingness to support Vietnam in fulfilling this role and the Chair of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2020 as well as the non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council for 2020-2021.

The NA Chairwoman asked the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continue working closely with their Lao counterpart to train diplomatic staff for Laos, while emphasizing that for economic diplomacy, the two sides need to organize seminars to share lessons of successes and failures so that they can learn more from each other.