Lao President Choummaly Sayasone

A Lao official said President Choummaly Sayasone has sent a message of congratulations to US President-elect Barack Obama, right after he learned that Mr. Obama won the election.

Mr. Yong Chanthalangsy, a spokesperson for The Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs told VOA-Lao Service the message was sent to Mr. Obama last Thursday.

“After Mr. Obama won the US presidential election, President Choummaly Sayasone sent a telegram conveying his congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama and expressing his hope that the good relations and mutual cooperation existing between Laos and the US will be continuously and effectively developed under the leadership of Mr. Obama.”

Mr. Obama will be sworn in as the 44th US president on January 20th, 2009. He will be the first black president in the nation's 232-year history. The Democratic Party nominee beat his Republican rival, Arizona Senator John McCain, in the November 4^th US presidential election.

The son of a white American woman and a black Kenya man, the 47-year-old Obama burst into the national spotlight after delivering the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.  Four years later, he became the party nominee and the first African-American to win the nomination of a major US political party.

President-elect Obama answers question during a news conference in Chicago, 7 Nov. 2008

Obama, who was born in the US Pacific island of Hawaii and spent his youth there, as well as in Indonesia.

He attended Columbia University in New York and set his sights on a public service after graduation, becoming a community organizer in Chicago.  He later attended Harvard Law School and served in the Illinois State Senate.

Listen to our report for more details in Lao.