There were very rich discussions with the leadership of the Lao People's Democratic Republic – the President, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The overall conclusion is that we have an excellent political dialogue, a very solid foundation in terms of traditions of our relationship, and we need to strengthen the economic foundation. There is the mechanism of the intergovernmental commission, which over the past year has stepped up its activity; last year saw a meeting in Moscow, this year it will be held in Vientiane. We agreed to focus on investment activities. In Laos, several joint ventures for mining gold, tin, lead are already operating. It is important to strengthen and support this form of cooperation in every way. INTER RAO UES shows interest in participating in large-scale projects in Laos, especially in hydropower development. VimpelCom is entering the Laos market of mobile operators. There is serious interest in establishing joint ventures here in the field of farm product processing and wood working. Moreover, it is important that the interest is shown by businessmen from a large number of Russian regions, not only our Far East and Siberia, but also the European part of our country.

We have a lot of opportunities to develop humanitarian cooperation; next year we plan to open a Russian center here under the aegis of the Russian World Foundation, as well as to revitalize the Russian Center for Science and Culture through Rossotrudnichestvo.

We have always worked closely with Laos in international affairs. Traditionally we support the initiatives of each other in the UN. We especially appreciate the role played by Laos in ASEAN in ensuring deeper cooperation between our country and this promising Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Laos supports us with respect to more complete involvement of the Russian Federation in the other integration structures in the AP region.

We do not have any problems in the relationship, and there are plans to further deepen the ties, and we agreed to implement them in every possible way.

Question: Was the prospect of a Laotian debt write-off discussed?

Lavrov: The question of debt in principle had been settled even a year and a half ago. Laos has resumed the payment of the debt, and we are ready to consider the question of capitalizing a part of it as an investment in the Lao economy. This problem does not exist.

July 22, 2010