Русский
Vladimir Putin has met with Thongloun Sisoulith, the President of Laos, following the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan.
This is what they had to say:
Putin:
“Once again, I warmly welcome you all and would like to thank you, above all, for your participation in the BRICS Summit. The group is a prototype of multipolarity, a structure that consolidates the Global South and East. I have warm memories of our meeting in May, when you visited Moscow to participate in the celebrations marking the 79th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. We will be glad to see you in Moscow at the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of Victory next year.
Our relations are of a mutually beneficial nature and have already reached the level of strategic partnership. This March we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Treaty on Amity, and next year we will celebrate the 65th anniversary of our diplomatic relations.
The absolute volumes of trade are still modest, but the trend is nevertheless very good, and it is increasing many times over.
We have close positions on most international issues. It is very important that the Lao chairmanship of the ASEAN promotes its cooperation with Russia, and we are very grateful to you for that.”
Sisoulith:
“Thank you, Mr President. It has been five months since we met, and I would like to reiterate some points of cooperation between our countries.
I think that Russia’s role will grow in the international arena after this BRICS summit. Following May’s meeting we discussed banking and financial cooperation, and our Central banks are already cooperating.”
Analysis & Implications
Russia-Laos bilateral trade is small at about US$500,000 however the two countries have long diplomatic ties going back to the Cold War era. Laos is landlocked, hence trade volumes are small and are typically routed via China. Laos does pick up some manufacturing investments from neighbouring countries such as Thailand and China, and it also has a developing tourism industry. What trade there is, is typically energy produce from Russia and agricultural products such as fruits from Laos. The country is also quite mountainous which has created additional connectivity issues. In that sense, it was interesting that the Russian Minister of Transport, Roman Starovoit was also involved in the discussions. There may be opportunities for Russian Railways to provide rolling stock.
The reference to Central Bank discussions are likely to involve the potential use of Russian MIR cards in Laos or to formalise Ruble-Kip trading and move to sovereign currency use in trade relations. Laos is a member of ASEAN, which gives it free trade access to Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It also has FTA with China and India.
Laos is a small player within ASEAN with a population just under 8 million, and a GDP of US$74 billion, but is the current chair of the bloc.
Further Reading
