Russia, Laos to discuss economic projects.

MOSCOW, October 13 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
and President of People's Democratic Republic of Laos Choummali Saignason
will discuss economic projects and adopt a strategic partnership
declaration after their talks on Thursday, a Kremlin administration
official told Itar-Tass.
The declaration will reflect mutual disposition to strengthen varied
ties in the Asian-Pacific region, the Kremlin official said.
"In the course of the top-level talks, the parties will give priority
to the current bilateral trade and economic cooperation and the prospects
for expanding it, in the first place by optimizing the structure of trade
turnover. In 2010, two-way trade was worth 8.7 million dollars, while in
January through July 2011 it reached 38.7 million dollars.
"It is planned that the discussion of the implementation of large
joint projects will have a special place on the agenda, in the first place
in such fields as telecommunications, hydro-electric power engineering,
and mining.
"The intergovernmental economic cooperation commission is expected to
play an active role in stepping up interaction. The 9th session of the
commission is due in Moscow in 2012.
"One of the subjects of the upcoming talks is cooperation in the
cultural and humanitarian sphere. It is planned to open a Russian center
under the aegis of the Russian World Foundation with the view of expanding
the knowledge of the Lao public about Russia. The center will be set up on
the basis of the National University of Laos.
"The parties are finalizing the issue of resuming the activity of the
Russian center for science and culture in Vientiane which stopped
operation in 1998.
"The course of the talks, Russia and Laos plan to consider the
prospects for perfecting the legal and contractual basis of relations.
Documents in the fields of tourism and health care have been prepared for
signing after top-level talks, along with accords between the Justice
Ministries.
"Medvedev and his Lao counterpart are expected to exchange views on
the pressing issues of the international agenda. Special attention will be
paid to further cooperation between the two states in the Asian-Pacific
region, particularly within the framework of the ASEAN forum for security
and the Russia-ASEAN dialogue partnership, strengthening cooperation
between ASEAN and the SCO, and coordination of actions at the UN and
other international bodies," the Kremlin expert said.
The Kremlin underlined that the first visit of the Lao leader to
Russia in the history of modern relations is expected to give a
significant impulse to promoting the whole complex of Russian-Lao ties on
the basis of the treaty of the fundamentals of friendly relations between
the two countries signed in 1994.