General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith at the square outside the east gate of the Great Hall of the People ahead of their talks in Beijing, June 5, 2026. Photo: Xinhua

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith in Beijing on Friday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to Xinhua, Xi said China is willing to work with Laos to achieve a new leap in bilateral ties and build an all-weather China-Laos community with a shared future in the new era. 

Laos fully agrees with China and supports the upgrading of bilateral ties, and stands ready to work with China to consolidate high-level political mutual trust, Thongloun said, per Xinhua. 

After the talks concluded, the two sides jointly witnessed the signing of cooperation documents covering areas such as inter-party exchanges, people's wellbeing, finance, customs, trade, youth exchanges and media.

2026 marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Laos and China and the China-Laos Friendship Year. Standing at a new historic juncture, experts note the two countries will not only expand pragmatic cooperation to nurture new growth drivers, but also ramp up regional coordination. Leveraging the exemplary role of their bilateral partnership in the neighborhood, China and Laos are poised to inject positive momentum into regional peace, stability and development.

Promising prospects

During the talks, the Chinese leader made four points to advance bilateral ties, which included keeping to the socialist path, building a strong foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation, strengthening the traditional friendship between the two peoples, and improving coordination on foreign policies, according to Xinhua. 

He called on the two sides to take the establishment of the "3+3" strategic dialogue on diplomacy, defense and public security as an opportunity to deepen law enforcement and security cooperation, and resolutely crack down on cross-border crimes.

Noting that China is ready to work with Laos to upgrade the China-Laos Economic Corridor cooperation, Xi said the two sides should accelerate railway connectivity among China, Laos and Thailand and achieve greater regional connectivity at an early date, according to Xinhua. 

China and Laos should boost cooperation in traditional areas such as agriculture and electricity, and tap into emerging fields like artificial intelligence and the digital economy, Xi said, adding that China will continue to provide assistance to Laos within its capacity.

Xi said that the two countries should take the Year of China-Laos Friendship in 2026 as an opportunity to expand cooperation in culture, education, health, and at subnational levels. 

China now stands as the leading banner for the socialist system and developing countries, and a mainstay in safeguarding world peace and promoting the building of a multipolar world, said Thongloun, adding that China's development has provided valuable experience for the vast number of developing countries, including Laos.

He stressed that the Lao side firmly adheres to the one-China principle and supports the series of major global initiatives put forward by General Secretary Xi.

Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that guided by head-of-state diplomacy, political mutual trust between China and Laos has continued to deepen. 

Drawing on the institutional strengths inherent to socialist systems, the two sides can further align their medium- and long-term development strategies to pursue common development, Xu added. 

Ahead of his summit with Chinese leaders in Beijing, Thongloun kicked off his China itinerary with visits to Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province. While touring the country's renowned tech hub, the Lao leader paid site visits to Deep Robotics as well as Alibaba. His cheerful laugh while testing out domestically developed Chinese quadruped robots has gone viral across Chinese social media platforms.

In Zhejiang, the Lao leader also learned about China's practices in green development at Yucun village in Anji county, the birthplace of the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," which has guided the village to pursue an eco-friendly development path.

Upon his arrival in Beijing on Thursday, Thongloun visited the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, and returned to the room where he stayed for one month 26 years ago when he studied for an exchange program, as well as the China Academy of Space Technology.

Per Thongloun's visit itinerary and bilateral official statements, China-Laos cooperation is expanding beyond traditional sectors into emerging fields, said Xu. "Boasting strong complementarities in emerging growth drivers including green economy, digital economy as well as aerospace, the two nations enjoy enormous room for collaboration, promising deeper and more substantial pragmatic cooperation ahead."

According to China's Foreign Ministry, China-Laos economic and trade ties have continued to deepen in recent years, with China now serving as Laos' largest source of foreign investment and second-largest trading partner.

Bilateral trade reached $9.82 billion in 2025, up 19.3 percent year-on-year. China's exports to Laos totaled $4.32 billion, an increase of 17.6 percent, while imports from Laos rose 20.7 percent to $5.5 billion, according to the ministry.

Positive demonstration effect

During the Friday meeting with Thongloun, Xi said that China has always regarded Laos as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, Xinhua reported. 

China hopes to see Laos play a bigger role in international and regional affairs, and the two sides should work closely in multilateral settings to safeguard the common interests of the Global South, the Chinese leader added.

Along with Cambodia, Laos was one of the first countries among ASEAN members to sign an agreement to build a community with a shared future with China. Transcending bilateral ties, China-Laos pragmatic cooperation plays a leading and exemplary role in China-ASEAN relations, analysts said. 

China's first 500-kV cross-border alternating-current power link went into operation in April this year, marking a new step in energy cooperation between China and Laos. 

The project, the largest and highest-voltage power connection between the two countries, triples cross-border transmission capacity from 50 megawatts to 150 megawatts. It is expected to transmit 3 billion kWh of clean electricity annually, 30 times the capacity of previous lines, according to Xinhua. 

As an important member of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, Laos boasts abundant hydropower resources and functions as a regional energy "battery" for the ASEAN Power Grid initiative, Xu said.

Deep bilateral energy cooperation and cross-border grid upgrades between China and Laos facilitate regional integration, complementary growth and offer a robust benchmark for China-ASEAN cooperation on infrastructure, green transition and capacity synergy, Xu noted.

The year 2026 also celebrates five years since the China-Laos Railway went into service. According to a statement sent to the Global Times by China Railway Kunming Group on May 28, the China-Laos Railway has reached a new milestone, with cumulative passenger train runs surpassing 100,000 since its launch on December 3, 2021. The flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative has handled 73 million passenger trips. 

"Beyond transforming Laos from a landlocked country into a land-linked hub, the railway has boosted regional trade and economic integration and become a flagship project for regional cooperation," Ma Bo, an associate professor with the School of International Studies, Nanjing University, told the Global Times on Friday.

Boasting fruitful cooperation spanning infrastructure, clean energy and modern agriculture as well as the promising emerging track of artificial intelligence, China and Laos have yielded substantial achievements across diverse fields, said Ma. "Expected to keep delivering exemplary effects, Laos will serve as a key practical model for China's efforts to advance the building of a community with a shared future with neighboring countries."

In a signed article by Thongloun released by Lao News Agency on Friday, the Lao leader said that "Today, the Laos-China relationship stands at its highest point in history, serving as a model of equality, mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation."