🇷🇺🇱🇦 President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Laos Sonexay Siphandone held a meeting on the sidelines of the #RussiaASEAN Summit (Kazan, June 18, 2026)

💬 President Putin: We highly appreciate Vientiane’s continued assistance in promoting Russia-ASEAN cooperation.

I recall our meeting in Vladivostok last September during the Eastern Economic Forum. My colleagues and I know you as a good friend of our country, with which you have had many ties since the time of the Soviet Union.

Quite recently, on May 9, President Thongloun Sisoulith visited our country and took part in the Victory Day celebrations. We are grateful to him for this gesture of solidarity, as well as for sending a contingent of the Lao People’s Army to take part in last year’s parade marking the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. I received his congratulations on the occasion of Russia Day. Please convey to him my most sincere gratitude for his message and my best wishes.

☝️ We highly value our relations with Laos, which have traditionally been based on friendship, mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests.

Last year, we marked 65 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and this October will mark 15 years since the adoption of the Declaration on Strategic Partnership between our two countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

I know that before the Summit, during your talks in Moscow, you substantively discussed measures to deepen cooperation in such areas as energy, industry, agriculture, mineral exploration and extraction, the digital economy, banking, transport, tourism and education.

✍️ An important outcome was the signing of an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It creates the necessary legal framework for building a small-capacity nuclear power plant of Russian design in Laos.

We have also developed successful coordination on the international stage – at the #UN and other international platforms. Our countries are characterised by close or even coinciding approaches to most current issues on the global and regional agenda.

New opportunities for cooperation opened up after Laos, with Russia’s support, received the status of a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2025.

🐘 We are grateful for the decision of the Lao Side to donate two elephants to Russia. The Head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, told me about this. I am confident – and you can have no doubt – that they will be kept in the best possible conditions and will bring great joy to all animal lovers and all visitors, future visitors, to the Kazan Zoo.

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