On January 26, immediately after the solemn official welcoming ceremony, at the Party Central Committee Headquarters, General Secretary To Lam held talks with General Secretary and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith.
At the talks, General Secretary To Lam warmly welcomed the General Secretary and President of Laos and his wife, along with the high-level delegation of the Lao Party and State, to visit the State level of Vietnam; expressed respect and appreciation for the fact that the General Secretary and President of Laos visited Vietnam as the first country to visit in the capacity of General Secretary and President of Laos right after the success of the new term Congress of each Party.
General Secretary To Lam affirmed that the visit is meaningful and a historical milestone, showing the special respect of the Party, State of Laos and Comrade Thongloun Sisoulith personally for the Vietnam-Laos relationship.
The two leaders emphasized that in the context that the two Parties have just successfully organized the new term Congress, opening a new stage of development with long-term strategic orientations, continuing to strengthen strategic cohesion, making the comprehensive cooperation relationship between Vietnam and Laos, Laos - Vietnam deeper and more substantive is of utmost importance and urgency; affirming that this is not only an objective requirement stemming from the fundamental and long-term interests of each country, but also a common political responsibility of the two Parties in inheriting, preserving and promoting the invaluable common asset that generations of leaders and people of the two countries have painstakingly cultivated; unanimously agreeing that in the new development stage, the two sides need to concretize, synchronously and effectively organize high-level agreements and the Joint Statement Vietnam - Laos in the central position, ensuring close links between strategic vision and specific actions.
The two leaders agreed to promote the strengths of each country, focus on implementing projects that meet the practical needs of the people of the two countries, bearing the mark and high symbolic value of bilateral relations, prioritizing key areas such as national defense - security, contributing to maintaining political stability, order, social safety of each country, firmly consolidating a peaceful and stable environment for long-term sustainable development; promote economic - trade - investment cooperation, strive to achieve a trade turnover of 10 billion USD, strengthen connectivity between the two economies, connect transportation with large projects such as the Hanoi - Vientiane expressway, Vientiane - Vung Ang railway;
Promote improving the quality and efficiency of education and training cooperation, develop human resources, especially high-quality human resources, research the possibility of applying new training models, promote propaganda about the special relationship between Vietnam and Laos; unanimously strive to promote breakthroughs, improve the efficiency of cooperation in the fields of culture, tourism, science and technology on the basis of maximizing the potential, strengths and complementarity of each country; expand cooperation in the fields of telecommunications, e-government and digital transformation.
At the end of the talks, the two leaders witnessed the handover ceremony of cooperation documents between the two countries.
