US Ambassador: Laos-US comprehensive partnership yielding more fruit

Laos and the United States have recorded greater fruitful cooperation after the two sides elevated their bilateral relations to new heights, a US diplomat has said.
In 2016, former President Bounnhang Vorachit and then US President Barack Obama agreed to elevate bilateral relations to a comprehensive partnership, starting a new era of cooperation, when Mr Obama visited Laos that year. This year Laos and the United States are celebrating the 5th anniversary of their comprehensive partnership and 66th year of diplomatic ties, with many greater achievements recorded.
“So far, the biggest cooperation and assistance project is likely to be the unexploded ordnance (UXO) left during the war,” US ambassador to Laos Dr Peter M. Haymond told reporters last week.

Laos was heavily bombed during the Indochina War. Large areas of the country remain contaminated with UXO, which Lao officials say will take dozens of years to clear.
US assistance to help clear the deadly devices has increased over the past decade. 
More than 10 years ago, US assistance for UXO clearance stood at US$2-3 million a year. This aid increased to five, nine and 15 million dollars a year until 2015, Ambassador Haymond said.
When President Obama visited Laos in 2016, he announced that the budget for UXO clearance in Laos would be increased to US$30 million a year over the next three years.
This level of assistance continues to be provided during the administrations of former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, Dr Haymond added.
“This is to help the Lao government achieve the 18th Sustainable Development Goal to completely clear UXO by 2030,” the top US diplomat in Laos said, adding that the US is expected to provide further assistance in this regard.
The amount of future annual assistance provided will be determined by the US Congress. US assistance to clear UXO in Laos began more than 30 years ago, he added. In addition, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has expanded cooperation fields with Laos since the proclamation of the comprehensive partnership. It now covers the fields of health, nutrition, education, efforts to prevent human trafficking and the wild animal trade, business environment improvement, economic promotion, and legal aid access.
In 2016, when the USAID opened an office in Laos, its budget was less than US$5 million a year. This has increased to more than US$30 million a year to finance various cooperation projects in numerous provinces.
In addition to the planned cooperation projects, the US has also extended assistance to Laos via what the ambassador described as “unplanned assistance”, such as aid to help contain the Covid-19 outbreak.
Since the pandemic surfaced, the US has provided millions of dollars of assistance, including aid in the form of medical equipment and funding to train staff in the Lao health sector, World Health Organisation, and Unicef in Laos. 
In addition, the US government has donated Covid-19 vaccine to Laos via the COVAX Facility  a global partnership aiming to ensure equitable access to vaccines.Some 1,008,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine donated by the US government arrived in Laos last month.
Ambassador Haymond said Laos can expect to receive more assistance from the US including Covid-19 vaccines.
Marking the 5th anniversary of comprehensive partnership this year, the ambassador said “I would like the Lao government and people to know that the US intends to preserve further the comprehensive partnership.”
Economically, although two-way trade between Laos and the US is much smaller than US trade with other countries in the region, the ambassador noted that Laos-US two-way trade reached at least US$130 million in 2020, an increase of almost 100 percent over the past decade. The value of two-way trade stood at about US$70 million in 2010. “It is expected that it (trade) will increase further in the future,” Ambassador Haymond said.

By Times Reporters
  (Latest Update August 31, 2021)