As part of a push
to pay more attention to Asia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry makes a rare visit to Laos.
VIENTIANE, Laos — Secretary of State John Kerry arrived Sunday in Laos, where the United States is helping the government clear a countryside still littered with unexploded ordnance dating to the Vietnam War.
Kerry’s one-day stop for talks with senior officials marks a rare diplomatic visit. He’s only the third secretary of state in six decades to visit the tiny country in Southeast Asia, with John Foster Dulles stopping in 1955 and Hillary Clinton in 2012. Relations have been standoffish for decades between Washington and the communist rulers of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, who last week chose a new leader for the single-party government. But in recent years, the countries have started to warm to each other.
Kerry came to lay the groundwork for a summit that President Barack Obama will host in February for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, a group that Laos chairs this year. Vientiane, the capital, will in turn host Obama at an ASEAN meeting this summer, when he’ll become the first U.S. president to visit.
The visits are part of the administration’s effort to pay more attention to Asia. Kerry goes on Tuesday to Cambodia, one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. Laos and Cambodia do most of their trade with China, which is aggressively courting Laos with loans and investments. Kerry is trying to help the U.S. make more inroads.
He arrives in the middle of a political transition that began after Kerry was already in Switzerland, his first stop on an eight-day trip to four countries.
Kerry is not scheduled to meet with Bounnhang Vorachit, the vice president chosen Friday to lead Laos’ communist party, but he does plan to meet with Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong.