Laos and US discuss comprehensive concord


Fri, 12 Mar 2010
Vientiane - A high-ranking US diplomat held talks on cooperation with communist Laos during a two-day visit to the South-East Asian country this week, state media reports said Friday. Kurt Campbell, US assistant secretary of state in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs, met with Lao Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Phongsavath BouphaWednesday for wide-ranging talks on US-Lao relations and on Thursday paid a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, the Vientiane Times reported.

 

"The high-level meeting is the first of its kind to be held in Vientiane," the government mouthpiece said.

 

Lao-US diplomatic ties have been subdued since Laos opted for a communist government in December 1975 after the US Central Intelligence Agency conducted a "secret war" in Laos as part of the US military campaigns in neighbouring Vietnam and Cambodia.

 

In the course of that not-so-secret war, the United States dropped more bombs on Laos than had ever been dumped in previous wars. Their legacy remains today in remote parts of north-eastern Laos, where thousands of rounds of unexploded ordinance continue to threaten the lives and limbs of farmers and children.

 

Campbell is on a regional tour of South-East Asia that began in Singapore before going to Kuala Lumpur and Vientiane. Next on his itinerary is Jakarta, Bangkok and Tokyo.

 

He has been denied a visa to visit Myanmar, Washington-based sources said.