Da Nang (VNA) – Vietnam and Laos are seeking to strengthen coordination between central agencies and border provinces to improve the handling of requests for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
The issue was at the centre of a meeting held in Da Nang city on September 17–18, bringing together around 50 representatives from central agencies and procuracies in provinces and cities along the shared border between the two countries. The meeting was jointly organised by the Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam, the Supreme People's Procuracy of Laos, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vietnam.
Speaking at the event, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters under the Supreme People's Procuracy Vu Thi Hai Yen, said growing cross-border exchanges in population, trade and local cooperation have created greater demands for coordination between law enforcement and judicial agencies.
She noted that transnational crimes, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering and high-tech crimes, were becoming increasingly sophisticated. In some cases, offenders, witnesses, documents, evidence, electronic data and assets linked to a case may be located in both countries.
Mutual legal assistance in criminal matters is therefore an important tool for competent authorities to collect evidence, verify information, trace assets and bring offenders to justice, helping ensure that national borders do not become gaps in the fight against crime, she said.
The meeting took place after Vietnam’s 2025 Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters came into effect on July 1, 2026. The law designates the Supreme People's Procuracy as Vietnam’s central authority for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
Meanwhile, the 2020 Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between Vietnam and Laos allows procuracies in border provinces of the two countries to contact each other directly when sending, receiving and executing requests for mutual legal assistance.
Sibounzom Bounlom, Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation under the Supreme People's Procuracy of Laos, said the meeting would help improve cooperation between the two countries’ procuracies and promote the implementation of the treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition.
During the sessions, representatives shared experience in cooperation between Vietnam’s Dien Bien and Nghe An provinces and their Lao counterparts. They discussed difficulties in processing mutual legal assistance requests and proposed measures to strengthen direct coordination between border localities.
Participants also reviewed new legal provisions in both countries, exchanged views on procedures for handling requests for mutual legal assistance, and discussed several cases currently being addressed through bilateral cooperation.
Nguyen Nguyet Minh, head of the UNODC Office in Vietnam, said the meeting followed earlier exchanges between Vietnam and Laos on mutual legal assistance and extradition in Vientiane in October 2025 and in Hanoi in March 2026.
UNODC will continue supporting the two countries in promoting professional dialogue, strengthening institutional capacity and improving cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crime, she said.
Stronger direct communication channels between agencies in the two countries are expected to help shorten processing times and improve the collection of evidence, information verification and asset tracing in cross-border criminal cases./.
VNA
