Top Lao legislator backs friendship activities ahead of 2027 milestones

Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Committee for Cultural and Social Affairs and President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association (VLFA) Nguyen Dac Vinh paid a courtesy call to President of the Lao NA Sonexay Siphandone in Hanoi on November 2.

Sonexay, who is on official Vietnam visit, welcomed the steady growth of bilateral friendly and cooperative ties and flagged the importance of 2027, when the two countries mark 65 years of diplomatic ties (September 5) and 50 years since signing the Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation (July 18).

He urged the Vietnam-Laos and Laos-Vietnam friendship associations to keep coordinating closely and step up messaging on the two countries’ great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation and strategic cohesion, especially around the treaty’s 50th anniversary.

On preparations for 2027 anniversaries, Sonexay said Laos has a national-level steering committee working with Vietnam. The two associations’ activities will sit within the two countries’ joint agenda.

Vinh congratulated the Lao Party, State and people on their achievements under the 12th National Party Congress resolution and the 10th five-year socio-economic development plan.

The Vietnamese Party, State and people always see the Vietnam-Laos special solidarity as an invaluable asset of both peoples and a strategic factor for each country’s revolutionary cause, he said, adding that protecting, consolidating and upholding it is the shared responsibility of all sectors, organisations and people, including people’s diplomacy groups. The two legislatures have an important role in boosting cooperation through delegation exchanges, high-level contacts and sharing of experience in lawmaking and oversight, making the Vietnam-Laos comprehensive collaboration more effective.

He said the two associations always earn close direction of the two Parties and States’ leaders. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President To Lam has directed 2027 anniversaries with rich, practical and substantive content, especially aimed at younger generations.

Sonexay, when serving as Prime Minister, gave important orientations for the association’s work at a June 2026 meeting. Vietnamese PM Le Minh Hung also stressed the two associations’ tasks at a meeting with the Lao Front for National Construction and the Laos-Vietnam Friendship Association during his October working trip to Laos.

Following those directions, the two associations have coordinated many activities, especially on major anniversaries, notably the 5th Vietnam-Laos People Friendship Festival in 2022 in Vietnam’s Quang Tri province and Laos’ Savannakhet province for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the treaty’s 45th anniversary.

They also regularly hold youth, pupil and student exchanges; meetings between former volunteer soldiers and Vietnamese experts and younger generations; Buddhist cultural exchanges and martyr tributes; offer care and support for Lao students in Vietnam; and social security support for struggling localities.

In border areas, localities have run twinning programmes between villages, residential clusters and localities.

Vinh said that the two associations will work closely with agencies and organisations in both countries on anniversaries and step up messaging on Vietnam-Laos relations next year. He wants the two associations to soon draft a coordination plan and agree on activities to report to the two Parties and States’ leaders.

Sonexay agreed with the orientation presented by Vinh and asked the two associations to keep holding practical activities that foster people-to-people ties. He said he looks forward to welcoming a VLFA delegation to Laos next year./.