VLADIVOSTOK, September 12. /TASS/. The Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) seeks to build bilateral interaction with Russia at the current stage by relying on the legacy of Laos’ longstanding relationship with Moscow, and is expecting growth in trade and tourist traffic from Russia, Laotian Vice President Pany Yathotou stated in her speech at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), which is taking place in Vladivostok on September 10-13.

As she noted, Russia is one of Laos’ key partners. The two countries exchange information and accumulated experience across all areas of mutual interest. "Since the days of the USSR, we have been maintaining traditionally strong relations. Later, they reached the level of strategic partnership in the field of security in the Asia-Pacific region. We intend to utilize these relations and the cooperation we had in the past to move forward," the Laotian vice president stated.

"We cooperate in many areas, including the economy, tourism, human capital development, resources, and many others. Today, we can see growth in trade turnover between our countries and in investment. We also expect growth in tourist traffic from the Russian Federation," Yathotou stated.

The Laotian vice president said that the extension of the recently launched Laotian-Chinese railroad to Russian territory could be useful for further development of trade relations and investments between Laos and Russia. "We have built the Laos-China railroad. It is a strategic project that we would like to extend to Australia. This kind of extension of the railroad to Russia's territory could be extremely useful for the development of trade and investment between the two countries," the senior Laotian official emphasized.