On August 1, 2018, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith of Laos before attending the Foreign Ministers’ Meetings on East Asia Cooperation in Singapore.

Wang Yi noted that China and Laos enjoy sound relations. General Secretary and President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Laos last November, and General Secretary and President Bounnhang Vorachith paid a visit to China this May. Both sides reached important consensus on deepening comprehensive strategic cooperation, which charted the course for the building of a community of shared future with strategic significance. We stand ready to, together with the Lao side, maintain high-level exchanges, and steadily promote the construction of key projects under the Belt and Road Initiative including China-Laos economic corridor and China-Laos railway. The Chinese side is willing to, together with the countries in the region including Laos, promote the upcoming Foreign Ministers’ Meetings on East Asia Cooperation to focus on cooperation and development as well as to send out the positive message.

Saleumxay Kommasith expressed that the Chinese government offered profound sympathies immediately after the accident of dam collapse in the southern region of Laos, and was the first to send rescue teams and provide emergency relief supplies. Such gestures made the Lao people feel again the valuable friendship of Chinese comrades in difficult times. The Lao side expressed deep appreciation in this regard. It demonstrated again that Laos and China are close friends and a community of common destiny sharing the same future. The Lao side is willing to, together with the Chinese side, earnestly implement the significant consensus reached by General Secretary Xi Jinping and General Secretary Bounnhang Vorachith during their mutual visits, and actively promote the building of a Laos-China community of common destiny, in a bid to jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.