In an interview on the occasion of the 48th Session of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Manh Cuong affirmed that this year's session holds special significance. It takes place as both countries conclude the 2021–2025 cooperation period and open a new phase of collaboration with a broader strategic vision.

Could you please share the significance of the 48th Session of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee within the overall framework of the special cooperation between the two countries?

The Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee is a vital mechanism for implementing the "great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic bond" between the two Parties and the two States. This year, the 48th Session is not merely an annual meeting to review cooperation agreements; it is a special session occurring immediately after the High-Level Meeting between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. It also coincides with the conclusion of the 2021–2025 cooperation term as we prepare to enter a new phase with a deeper strategic vision.

Co-chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, the session reaffirms the highest political will and commitment of the senior leadership to nurturing this "one-of-a-kind" relationship. It also highlights the pivotal role of the Intergovernmental Committee—a mechanism maintained continuously for 48 years—ensuring that all commitments and orientations between the two Parties and countries are implemented substantively. This is the mechanism that realizes the spirit of mutual support, sharing, and shared development.

This year, both sides will comprehensively evaluate the results of cooperation over the past five years (2021–2025). Despite the volatile regional and global context, Vietnam-Laos cooperation has continued to grow substantively, yielding very positive results. At the same time, the session is strategically oriented, as both sides will discuss and set the direction for cooperation in 2026 and the following years.

Based on the results of General Secretary To Lam’s State visit to Laos and other high-level agreements, both sides will exchange views and reach a consensus to continue making economic cooperation a strategic pillar, strongly and comprehensively promoting the relationship across all fields.

This is also an opportunity to affirm and deepen the essence of the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos. This close bond is strategically significant not only for the stability and development of each country but also for peace, stability, and cooperation in the region.

Could you share some outstanding achievements in implementing the Vietnam-Laos Cooperation Agreement for the 2021–2025 period?

During the 2021–2025 period, despite rapid global and regional fluctuations, increasing strategic competition among major powers, and global challenges like natural disasters and the Covid-19 pandemic, the special Vietnam-Laos relationship has been consolidated and developed sustainably.

Under the direct and comprehensive leadership of the two Parties and States, close coordination among ministries, sectors, localities, and businesses has been carried out proactively, flexibly, and effectively. Consequently, many key cooperation projects, especially in the 2024–2025 period, have seen difficulties resolved and progress accelerated, yielding substantive results and creating new momentum for bilateral cooperation in politics, economics, defense, security, and socio-cultural fields.

The two sides organized a conference to disseminate and issue the Implementation Plan for High-Level Agreements to concretize these commitments, contributing to a deeper, more substantive, and effective relationship, as reflected in the following areas:

First, political relations continue to be strengthened and have become increasingly profound, close, and trustworthy, affirming their core role in guiding the overall relationship. Both sides affirm that the Vietnam-Laos relationship is an exemplary, faithful, and rare bond—a decisive factor in the success of each country's revolution and a priceless common asset of both Parties and nations that must be preserved, promoted, and passed on to future generations.

Second, the two sides have effectively utilized existing cooperation mechanisms while establishing new ones to promptly resolve obstacles in implementing agreements; they have also coordinated closely on strategic issues.

Third, cooperation in defense, security, and foreign affairs continues to be maintained and developed as an important pillar of the relationship.

Regarding economic, investment, and trade cooperation: Economic cooperation has seen new progress and positive shifts. Obstacles have been promptly addressed, and investment and trade promotion, guidance, and supervision have been intensified.

Several large-scale projects in energy and mining have been pushed forward, creating significant momentum for other Vietnamese investment projects in Laos. Both sides are also actively researching and resolving difficulties in key strategic projects.

Regarding Vietnamese investment in Laos, Vietnam currently has 276 investment projects with a total registered capital of over $6.21 billion, of which realized capital is approximately $3 billion. Many large projects have been completed and are operating effectively, generating profits, creating jobs for Lao people, and promoting socio-economic development in both countries—particularly in telecommunications, banking, energy, mining, agriculture, and food processing.

In the 2021–2025 period, the Lao Government permitted Vietnamese enterprises to invest in 35 projects across various sectors with a total registered capital of $4.3 billion. Vietnamese enterprises contribute an average of $200 million per year in taxes and financial obligations to the Lao Government. Bilateral trade growth exceeded the targets set by the leaders, with both sides striving to reach a bilateral trade turnover of $5 billion in the near future.

Both sides have effectively promoted mechanisms for digitalizing bilateral retail payments, enhancing economic connectivity and creating new momentum for trade cooperation, thereby actively supporting investment and people-to-people exchanges.

Furthermore, cooperation and mutual assistance between committees, ministries, sectors, National Assembly committees, Fronts, mass organizations, and localities continue to be strengthened and implemented substantively in line with high-level agreements and cooperation plans.

Looking back on the journey we have traveled, we are always proud of the immense efforts of many generations in building our countries and nurturing the Vietnam-Laos relationship so that it continues to bear fruit, becoming an exemplary, faithful, and unique model in the world.

With the close guidance of the senior leadership of both Parties and States, along with the efforts of all sectors and businesses, we have every reason to maintain confidence in a bright future for each country and the special solidarity between Vietnam and Laos in this new era.

May the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos continue to grow, flourish, and endure forever.