Foreign Policy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Abstract

It is virtually impossible when discussing the foreign policy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) to differentiate between initiatives adopted in pursuit of specifically Lao national interests and those beneficial to the interests of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), as primus inter pares among the three Indochinese states. Or to put it another way, no clear analytical distinction exists between initiatives taken despite the constraints imposed by Indochinese (predominantly Vietnamese) interests and those taken in furtherance of these interests. This is because, despite the weakening of some ties cemented by the ‘special relationship’ between Laos and Vietnam, Lao foreign policy continues to be formulated to take account of both Lao and wider Indochinese (particularly Vietnamese) interests.