Laos assures US it will help counter Chinese assertiveness

“Despite the determination and efforts of the Chinese government, clearly there is more that they can do”. The efforts have resulted in a significant decline in the number of Laotians killed and seriously wounded, which was averaging 300 a year.

Also, later this year, Obama travels to Laos, for an ASEAN summit, becoming the first US president to do so.

His visit to this tiny nation that rarely makes global news is a rare one for American diplomats. But in recent years, the two countries have worked to establish warmer ties. “As Secretary Kerry meets with Lao officials in the capital city of Vientiane, I hope he keeps in mind that out in the surrounding rural areas, a child is walking to school, a mother is clearing the farmland, a father is lighting a cooking stove – all while risking life and limb due to the unexploded bombs still buried around them”.

Mr. 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 (ASEAN), a group that Laos chairs this year. He also is denying suggestions of disunity among countries that back the opposition and says US support for foes of President Bashar Assad remains solid.

Calling the Cambodian military one of the government’s “instruments to repress and silence civil society”, the letter also asks Mr. Kerry to stop USA training and assistance of “Cambodia’s abusive armed forces”. Secondary sanctions against North Korea, if put in place, would also affect China the most, because most of the North’s external trade is with China or goes through the country.

After meeting the prime minister, Kerry visited Pha That Luang Stupa, the most important Buddhist monument in Laos, and offered a bouquet of closed white lotus blossoms dedicated to its people.

Beijing showed an “initial response” to the draft last week and talks have begun in earnest, but progress has been slow, the official said.

“We want them to walk back, and it’s both pressure and incontrovertible evidence that the global community isn’t going to change its mind and decide that we’re good with a nuclear North Korea”.

“It is particularly important that Laos finds itself playing a critical role within Asean, and Asean itself is critical to upholding the rules-based system in the Asia-Pacific and ensuring that every country, big and small, has a say in addressing the matters of shared concern”, Kerry said. “Secretary Kerry can help create a new, lasting legacy of peace out of the wreckage of war, which has been left unresolved for far too long”.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the U.S. official said Kerry will have “in depth” discussions on the South China Sea in Beijing, which has caused tension between China and ASEAN countries.

North Korea said on January 6 that it successfully tested a powerful nuclear bomb.

Kerry declined to preview the message he intends to deliver in China, saying he wants the conversations to remain private.

No matter if it’s the North Korea issue or the South China Sea issue, the U.S.is attempting to use a unified strategy to contain China by driving a wedge between China and its neighbors, and to realize its ultimate goal of a “rebalance to Asia” strategy, Zha Xiaogang, a research fellow with the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times.