In 2023, Vietnam and Laos will continue to work together to improve border management, with the hope that their respective defense ministries would formalize their border guard cooperation via the signing of a protocol.

Third Vietnam-Laos Defense Policy Dialogue held at Xamneua town, Huaphanh province, on March 23. The Vietnamese delegation is led by Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, who is also a member of the Party Central Committee and the Deputy Minister of National Defense. The Laotian delegation is headed by Lieutenant General Vongkham Phommakone, who is also a member of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Deputy Minister of Defense.

At the third annual Vietnam-Laos defense policy dialogue, both countries agreed on the significance of rising major power rivalry in the Asia-Pacific region, the rise of non-traditional security concerns, and the need to adapt to these new threats. For the sake of peace and stability in the area, the Vietnamese and Laotian ministries of defense have decided to reaffirm ASEAN's important position in the region by supporting mechanisms headed by ASEAN. Both parties highlighted the need of preserving a peaceful, stable, cooperative, and developing environment in the East Sea, since it is a region with many unresolved issues and potential for collision.

Deputy Ministers Hoang Xuan Chien and Vongkham Phommakone were also pleased to see that bilateral defense cooperation mechanisms have been actively resumed in a direct form after the COVID-19 epidemic is controlled in each country, particularly the successful organization of nearly 30 large and symbolic activities in the "Vietnam-Laos, Laos-Vietnam Solidarity and Friendship Year 2022.2". The Vietnam Border Guards' Military Zones and Command have coordinated with their Lao counterparts to host a variety of cooperative events, including: information exchange; effective promotion of the exchange and twinning models; joint activities in crime prevention; and border friendship exchanges. The boundary between Vietnam and Laos has been one of peace, friendship, collaboration, and growth ever since. Some of the most important include: spreading information; exchanging delegates at all levels; fighting and defending; coordinating, managing, and protecting borders; teaching and coaching personnel; providing medical care; and providing mutual help.

Furthermore, the two countries agreed to continue to attach importance to staff training cooperation, recognizing this as an important strategic area for the relationship between the two countries; to continue to strengthen propaganda and education for officials, soldiers, and people of the two countries to have a profound awareness of the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, the two States, the people, and the armies of the two countries; agreed to organize the border defence friendship exchange at ministerial level between the three countries of Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia, in combination with the organization of the annual meeting between the three defence ministers and a joint exercise at the end of the year 2023.

Working minutes were signed by both parties at the conclusion of the Third Defense Policy Dialogue.

Lieutenant General Vongkham Phommakone and Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien were present the same day at the Exchange Program for Vietnamese and Laotian Young Border Guards in the afternoon.

Also on March 23, in the afternoon, Provincial Party Committee Secretary and Governor of Huaphanh Province comrade Vanxay Phengxumma was welcomed by Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien. The Deputy Defense Minister assured the Vietnamese people that the Vietnamese government and the Vietnam People's Army do everything in their power to help Vietnamese agencies and local units, including those in Huaphanh province, work more closely with their Laotian counterparts.