At the invitation of Comrade Saleumxay Kommasith, Member of the Politburo, Standing Deputy Prime Minister of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Comrade Pham Gia Tuc, Member of the Politburo, Standing Deputy Prime Minister, led the high-level delegation of the Government of Vietnam to visit and work in Laos on September 21, according to the Government Department of Information and Communications.
Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc held talks with Lao Standing Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith.
At the talks, Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc emphasized that consolidating the great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic linkage between Vietnam and Laos is a strategic and long-term task, contributing to creating a peaceful, stable environment and development space for each country.
The two Standing Deputy Prime Ministers highly appreciated the positive and comprehensive developments of the two countries' relations, including high-level political trust, increasingly close defense and security cooperation, and positive changes in economic and investment cooperation.
In the first 7 months of 2026, Vietnam had 20 investment projects in Laos with a total registered capital of more than 638 million USD, an increase of 4.2 times compared to the same period in 2025. The two sides affirmed that they will continue to closely coordinate to remove difficulties, promote key projects; cooperation in education and training, culture, people-to-people exchanges, between ministries, sectors, localities and coordination at regional and international forums to achieve many important results.
The two sides agreed to jointly strive to deepen the content of "strategic cohesion", focusing on concretizing and effectively implementing agreements between the two Parties and two countries; strengthening defense and security cooperation; creating breakthroughs in economy, trade, investment; promoting cultural, sports, tourism, education, local and people-to-people exchanges; accelerating key projects, improving the efficiency of using aid capital; closely coordinating at ASEAN, the United Nations and Mekong Subregion cooperation mechanisms.
Immediately after the talks, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc and Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith met with a number of Vietnamese and Lao businesses investing and doing business in the two countries.
Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc requested the Lao Government and ministries and sectors to pay attention and direct functional agencies to study and soon have measures to harmonize the interests of the parties in the spirit of great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos, contributing to promoting investment and trade cooperation between the two countries to become increasingly effective and substantive. Vietnam also commits to creating favorable conditions for Lao businesses to invest and do business effectively in Vietnam.
Standing Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith acknowledged and received the opinions and recommendations of businesses of the two countries; affirmed that the Lao Government will continue to review, adjust, and supplement inappropriate regulations, creating favorable conditions for investment projects and implementing policies and agreements agreed between the two countries.
Standing Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith requested businesses of the two countries to continue to strengthen cooperation, joint investment, and joint development, thereby bringing practical benefits to both sides and contributing to consolidating and tightening the special solidarity relationship between Vietnam and Laos.
