A monument to Lao soldiers and Vietnamese volunteer troops killed on Lao soil was inaugurated in Phonhe village, Thurarom district, in Vientiane province of Laos, on May 5.

The inauguration was honoured with the presence of Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Douangchay Phichith and Vientiane province’s governor Khammung Phomthadi.

Vietnamese Ambassador Ta Minh Chau and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Laos were also present to commemorate 28 Lao and Vietnamese soldiers killed in a local battlefield in 1946 during the war of resistance against French colonialists.

The 4,000 sq. m. monument compound now shelters the tombs of these heroes under the shade of trees.

The major donor to the project is a war veteran-turned Vietnamese CEO, Le Van Kiem, who now runs Long Thanh Golf Investment and Business Joint-stock Company. Kiem donated 150,000 USD to the monument construction, while at the inauguration ceremony his wife handed over another 100,000 USD for Lao military hospital No. 103 to purchase medical equipment and medicines in service of Lao soldiers.

The Vientiane Governor described the project as evidence of evergreen relations between Laos and Vietnam , which should be handed down to younger generations of the two countries.

Phomthadi pledged to follow the late Lao President Kaysone Phomvihane’s teaching to keep the Laos-Vietnam relationship everlasting “even if rivers would have dried up or mountains worn away”./.