Vientiane (VNA) – Somsavat Lengsavad, formerPolitburo member and former Deputy Prime Minister of Laos, highlighted the substantialcontributions by former Deputy PM of Vietnam Vu Khoan to the special Vietnam -Laos relations.

Vu Khoan, born in 1937, passed away onJune 21 after a period of illness.

In a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency,Lengsavad recounted that he came to know Khoan after he was appointed Ministerof Foreign Affairs of Laos in March 1993, when the latter was serving as DeputyMinister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam.

He said Khoan greatly contributed to the enhancement ofties between the two foreign ministries, especially in assisting Laos to preparefor its admission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) andtraining Lao diplomats.

He was one of the Vietnamese leaders considerably helpingwith the reinforcement of the great friendship, special solidarity, andcomprehensive cooperation between the two countries, not only in terms ofdiplomacy but also in his later positions such as Minister of Trade, Secretaryof the Party Central Committee, and Deputy PM, according to Lengsavad.

The Lao official went on to say that when he became Foreign Minister ofLaos in 1993, he asked Khoan to share diplomatic experience. In reply, Khoansaid that both the Lao official and he had not enrolled inany diplomatic academies, so they needed to studyinternational treaties, international relations, consular affairs, and relatedinternational laws in order to well perform their tasks.

Driven by the advice of by Khoan, Lengsavad read andstudied much, not only on the topics of politics, economy, and military but also otherfields since diplomacy required understanding of all aspects, he said.

He noted that through many occasions of meeting and working together, he realised Khoan was a highly capable official with in-depth knowledge aboutscientific and social affairs, adding that he was particularly impressed by theVietnamese official’s capacity of learning foreign languages.

When Vietnam and Laos became observers of ASEAN in 1992, then Deputy Foreign Minister Khoan, who was fluent in Russian language, started to learn English to serve the performance of duties related to ASEANcountries, and he managed to speak English fluently just after a short periodof learning, Lengsavad added./.