Americas News
Land-locked Laos and Bolivia set up relations
By DPA
Apr 27, 2007, 3:03 GMT

Bangkok - Laos and Bolivia - two land-locked socialist states - have established diplomatic relations, Lao officials announced on Friday.

Lao Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and his counterpart from Bolivia, David Choquehuanca Cespedes, signed the agreement to set up diplomatic ties on Thursday, said Lao foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanhthalousy.

'This is the first time that Lao diplomacy has reached Latin America,' said Yong, in a telephone interview from Vientiane.

Laos will initially use its embassy in Havana to cover Bolivia, he said. The country, half the size of France, now enjoys diplomatic relations with 125 nations worldwide.

Both Laos and Bolivia are land-locked nations with socialist-style governments. Laos opted for communism in December 1975, and has remained under communist rule since although in the late 1980s it was forced to introduce market-oriented reforms after the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

Bolivia has been under socialist leader Evo Morales, a figurehead for Bolivia's coca farmers, since December 2005.