National Assembly Chairman to pay official visit to Laos, attend AIPA-45

Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Tran Thanh Man will pay an official visit to Laos and attend the 45th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-45) from October 17-19 at the invitation of Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Saysomphone Phomvihane, the Government News quoted the NA's Committee for External Relations as announcing on October 14.

Vietnam and Laos officially established their diplomatic relations on September 5, 1962.

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

The two-way trade between Vietnam and Laos reached $1.1 billion in the first seven months of 2024, up 16.7 per cent year-on-year.

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

Since the NA officially joined the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) on September 19, 1995, it 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 NA 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.

Vietnam has hosted the AIPA general assembly three times in 2002, 2010 and 2020.