Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (R) and  Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in Vientiane on Oct 30

(KPL) Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and delegation of senior officials, is visiting the Lao PDR in response to the invitation of Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone.

The visit aims to strengthen the longstanding relations and cooperation between Laos and Thailand.

An official welcome ceremony in honour of Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, his spouse and delegation was held by Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone at Government Office, Vientiane.

Prime Minister Somxay Sipandon highly appreciated to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin who led the delegation to visit the Lao PDR for the first time after being appointed as the new Prime Minister of Thailand.

At a bilateral meeting, the two Prime Ministers highly valued the longstanding friendship and close cooperation between Laos and Thailand.

Both sides have reviewed the bilateral cooperation in various fields such as economic, trade-investment, energy, tourism, agriculture, health, bridge and road connection, especially human resource development cooperation.

At a bilateral meeting

The Lao leader also expressed thanks to Thailand for its grant assistance to Laos in priority areas of education, sports, agriculture, forestry and health.

Thailand is currently the number one trade partner, the third largest foreign investor in Laos.

The two sides agreed to promote the cooperation mechanism in an attemp to create conditions to facilitate the promotion of trade and investment between the two countries in the future.

Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (R) and  Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in Vientiane on Oct 30

They expressed satisfaction on the successful cooperation on electric energy with Thailand agreeing to increase its annual electricity import from Laos to 10,500 MW.

The two sides agreed to continue to support each other in the regional and international arena, especially Laos will be the 2024 ASEAN chairman.

Thai investment in Laos reached 4.7 billion US dollars last year.

The Lao and Thai premiers also witnessed the signing and exchange of documents namely MoU on exchange cooperation between Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and Thai Ministry of Culture, MoU on capacity building and development of the Lao-Thai train service business between the National Railway Enterprise and NEDA.

KPL