Former Lao Prime Minister General Sisavath Keobounphanh has lauded the close relationship between the armies of Laos and Vietnam over the past 65 years, especially during the two wars against France and the US.

He made the praise at his December 23 meeting with 500 officials of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism on the occasion of the 65 th founding anniversary of the Laos People’s Army.

Keobounphanh, who is also a former Politburo member and former President of the Lao Front for National Construction, stressed it was Vietnam’s Dien Bien Phu victory in 1954 that brought back independence to the three Indochinese countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

In the war against the US, the Laos People’s Army also fought side by side with Vietnamese voluntary troops for glorious victories, he noted.-VNA