The Lao Party, State and people will do their best to join the Vietnamese Party, State and people to preserve and uphold Laos-Vietnam special relations and comprehensive cooperation, said the top Lao Party and State leader.

Visiting Lao Party General Secretary and State President Choummaly Sayasone made the affirmation while talking with students and lecturers of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics - Administration on August 9.

President of the academy Ta Ngoc Tan said that the special friendship between the two Parties and peoples has been vividly reflected through effective cooperation and mutual assistance among the two countries’ agencies, businesses and social organisations, contributing to the cause of socialist construction, national prosperity and people’s happiness.

He said the academy has trained thousands of Lao middle ranking and senior officials, many of whom are now holding high positions in the Lao Party and State apparatus.

The academy has also cooperated with Lao friends in research projects on Party building work, translating the classic works of Marx, Engel and Lenin, and Ho Chi Minh’s Thought into Lao language and building facilities for the Lao National Institute for Politics - Administration.

Highlighting the academy’s important contributions to the revolutionary cause of Laos and the development of the Laos-Vietnam relations, Party General Secretary and State President Choummaly Sayasone thanked the academy for sharing its experience and helping to train Lao Party and State leaders.

He said he believes the national academy will become a leading training and research centre of Vietnam .

Earlier, the Lao leader and his entourage laid a wreath at the Monument to Heroes and Martyrs and paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum.

On the same day, Party General Secretary and State President Choummaly Sayasone paid a courtesy visit to former Vietnamese Party General Secretary Do Muoi, who expressed belief that under the leadership of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, Laos will continue to see development in all fields.

The Vietnamese Party, State and people are always grateful to the Lao counterparts for their wholehearted support and assistance for Vietnam during the cause of national defence in the past as well as in the current national construction and development, he said.

For his part, the Lao leader thanked Do Muoi for his contributions to developing the friendship, solidarity and cooperation between Laos and Vietnam .

Choummaly Sayasone reaffirmed that Laos ’ consistent policy is to attach importance to and try its best to continuously develop the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Laos , considering it a rule of development and a decisive factor for the success of the revolutionary cause in each country.

State President Truong Tan Sang later hosted a banquet for Party General Secretary and State President Choummaly Sayasone and the Lao high-level delegation.

The Lao leader and his entourage left Hanoi for Da Nang the same day./.