On the morning of October 13, at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense, General Phan Van Giang, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of National Defense of Vietnam, chaired the official welcome ceremony for General Khamliang Outhakaysone, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of National Defense of Laos.
At the talks following the welcome ceremony, General Phan Van Giang emphasized that since the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the 12th National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, senior leaders of the two Parties and States have conducted visits and meetings to orient cooperation and affirm the special relationship between Vietnam and Laos.
These meetings have contributed to strengthening defense and security cooperation while promoting trade, investment, infrastructure connectivity, education and training, and people-to-people exchanges. This demonstrates political trust, mutual respect, and a determination to promote increasingly close, substantive, and effective cooperation, concrete-izing the strategic cohesion in bilateral relations.
Leaders of both countries affirmed that the Ministries of National Defense and the military forces of the two nations continue to serve as the pioneer forces in realizing the goal and vision for the development of Vietnam-Laos relations in the new era.
General Phan Van Giang affirmed that defense cooperation in recent times has achieved great and increasingly substantive results, promoting its role as one of the key pillars of bilateral relations. All contents outlined in the 2026 Cooperation Plan have been effectively implemented through joint coordination.
General Khamliang Outhakaysone emphasized that this official visit to Vietnam, along with participating in the annual meeting between the Defense Ministers of the three countries and the joint military exercise among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, provides an opportunity to strengthen the great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic cohesion between Laos and Vietnam, while further deepening relations between the two Ministries of National Defense.
General Khamliang Outhakaysone expressed satisfaction with the results of defense cooperation across various sectors, particularly regarding high-level delegation exchanges, border management, military medicine, and the search for and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese martyrs who laid down their lives in Laos.
Regarding future cooperation, both sides agreed to direct their respective agencies and units to proactively coordinate the implementation of agreed-upon activities. Key priorities include delegation exchanges especially at high levels and the effective execution of consultation and dialogue mechanisms. Cooperation will also focus on Party and political work to build a military that is strong in terms of politics, ideology, and organization, ensuring it remains a loyal and trusted force for the Party, State, and people, as well as on border management and protection.
The two sides will continue to coordinate the search for, recovery, and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in Laos during wartime. They also agreed to cooperate in the defense industry, strengthen mutual consultation and support at multilateral forums, and promote trilateral military cooperation among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Furthermore, both sides emphasized the importance of human resource training, identifying it as a "pivotal task among pivotal tasks" of long-term strategic significance, serving as the core foundation for strengthening the special relationship between the two countries and their militaries.
At the conclusion of the talks, General Phan Van Giang and General Khamliang Outhakaysone signed the Vietnam-Laos defense cooperation plan for 2027.
