Vietnamese, Lao top legislators hold talks

At the talks between Chairwoman of Vietnam’s National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and her Lao counterpart Pany Yathotou (Photo: VNA)

Ngan shared her sympathy to the Lao Party, State and people over the human and property losses caused by recent floods in six central and southern Lao provinces.

She said some Vietnamese representative offices in Laos as well as the Vietnamese community in Laos, Vietnamese localities, ministries and departments have been raising funds to support Lao people.

Vietnam is willing to support Laos to address flood consequences, Ngan said, hoping that Lao people in the affected areas will soon overcome difficulties to resume production and daily life.

While exchanging about cooperation between the two countries, Pany Yathotou said the exchange of all-level delegations is significant to address issues that need close coordination, especially in the economy.

She suggested the two nations supplement some agreements to make it legally easier for bilateral cooperation in key fields such as transport, telecom, electricity, and trade as well as the implementation of several Vietnamese investment projects in Laos.

During the talks, the two sides highly appreciated the cooperation between legislative bodies, saying many agreements reached during the visit to Vietnam by the Lao top legislator in March 2019 have been implemented and reaped specific outcomes.

For example, the Vietnamese and Lao parliaments have urged the governments to deal with proposals of the two committees for external relations on free migration and undocumented marriage in the two countries’ shared border areas.

Pany Yathotou hoped the two parliaments would continue directing ministries and localities to settle the remaining cases before the agreement expires in this November.

Since the beginning of this year, the two sides have held a number of workshops and delegation exchanges to share professional information and experience.

Vietnam and Laos agreed to increase experience sharing and delegation exchanges at all levels while strengthening coordination to supervise the implementation of the signed agreements, contributing to promoting trade and investment cooperation.

They agreed to boost cooperation between the two national assemblies and people’s councils at the provincial level.

Chairwoman Ngan thanked Laos for supporting Vietnam to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021, and hoped Laos would continue supporting Vietnam in this position as well as the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2020.

She hoped Laos to strengthen coordination with Vietnam at regional and international parliamentary forums such as AIPA, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the ASEAN People Forum (APF), and the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF).

While discussing the East Sea issue, the two leaders agreed with the viewpoint of maintaining and protecting peace, stability, cooperation and development in the East Sea as well as settling disputes in the East Sea via peaceful means, in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and joining ASEAN countries to accelerate the building of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) for common benefits in the region and the global peace and stability.