President Lee Jae-myung held a summit meeting with President Thongloun Sisoulith of Laos, who is on an official visit to South Korea, to discuss ways to develop Korea-Laos relations and major regional and international issues. President Lee welcomed President Thongloun’s visit, marking the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and praised the remarkable achievements in trade, investment, and human exchanges since 1995.
President Thongloun’s visit is the first in about six years since the 2019 Korea-ASEAN Special Summit. The two leaders agreed to elevate the Korea-Laos relationship to a ‘comprehensive partnership’ and to expand cooperation in broader and future-oriented areas such as infrastructure, key minerals, and climate change response. President Lee particularly emphasized the need for close cooperation between the two countries to combat transnational crimes such as online scams.
Additionally, the two leaders expected that the criminal justice cooperation treaty and the extradition treaty, which will be signed during this summit, would contribute to establishing a proactive cooperation system for combating transnational crimes. They also agreed to set up a hotline between the South Korean Embassy in Laos and the Lao Ministry of Public Security to protect Korean nationals and to promptly conclude the ongoing police cooperation MOU between the law enforcement authorities of both countries.
President Lee expressed his hope that South Korean companies would participate in the ‘Luang Prabang International Airport’ development project being pursued by Laos. He also expressed his expectation that mutually beneficial projects would be actively promoted in areas such as the establishment of a supply chain for key minerals, water resource management, and climate change response, based on Laos’ abundant natural resources and South Korea’s technological capabilities.