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| Me in a Laotian tree |
Laos is gradually moving
away from its war-torn impoverished state and increasingly becoming involved in
the international community, including engagement with the United States. In
July 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Laos, marking the first
visit by a Secretary of State since 1955. Laos was accepted into the World Trade
Organization in 2013 albeit it applied for membership in 1997. President Obama became the first U.S. President to
visit Laos in September 2016, when he and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit
committed to a Comprehensive Partnership [1]. On a relative
note, especially in the midst of the US change of administration, Dr. Jill
Biden, wife of President Biden, visited Laos in 2015 becoming the first representative
from the White House to ever visit Laos [2]. A
relatively unique feature of the country is that 70 percent of Laos’ population
is under 30 years old [3]. It
stands to reason that “a large part
of U.S. bilateral assistance to Laos is devoted to improving health and child
nutrition” [1].
