Thread: Thailand and Laos to open up border

Thailand and Laos to open up border

Bangkok (dpa) - Thailand and Laos are to open up two more border crossings to foreigners in a joint bid to promote tourism and trade, according to a press release Saturday.

Fiercely communist Laos has habitually feared that if it opened up too freely it would be swamped by its much more heavily populated and vibrantly capitalist neighbour.

However, the need to lift Laos' feeble economy to provide employment for a young population often mired in poverty, and years of relatively trouble-free interaction with the outside world, have given the three-decade-old regime comfort, said a Bangkok-based diplomat.

The two countries agreed to strengthen joint security measures along the border and open two "temporary" international crossing points in Thailand's north-east provinces of Nakhon Phanom and Amnat Charoen, said the Thai News Agency.

Locals use many informal crossing places along the Mekong River than marks much of the common border, but foreign access to the landlocked Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic has been mostly channelled through two older gateways.

A "temporary" crossing point in Thailand's Uttaradit Province is being made permanent, the agency added.

The mutual suspicion that used to characterize bilateral relations was exemplified by a brief, but bloody border war between the two in the 1980s. This suspicion faded as co-operation has increased: Laos will receive much of its income in the future by selling electricity, produced by massive hydropower schemes, to Thailand.

In recent years a spate of mysterious bombings in Laos, thought to have been perpetrated by dissidents, has rattled the regime and some equally mysterious murders of Laotians living in Thailand may reflect continuing tensions within the wider Lao population.

Lingering resentment over Thailand's harbouring of anti-communist minority refugees has largely faded as the refugees have been either resettled in third countries or repatriated.

The two countries also agreed to work harder together to battle the drug trade by launching more joint patrols along the Mekong River and by establishing eight new centres to help coordinate moves against traffickers.

The agreement was signed Friday by Thailand's Interior Minister Air Chief Marshal Kongsak Wanthana and his counterpart the Lao Minister of Public Security Thongbanh Sengaphone. It came after a two-day 6th meeting of provincial governors of the two countries.