As presented in our World News,
U.S.
Senator Jim Webb visited Laos last week and met with government officials and business leaders
to advance U.S.
interests in the region.
The Office of U.S.
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia announced that the Democratic Senator arrived visited Laos
last Thursday to meet with a number of high-level government officials and industry leaders
to advance U.S.
interests in the region. The Senator's visit to Laos
is part of a two-week, five-nation tour of Asia that also includes Burma,
Thailand, Cambodia
and Vietnam.
Senator Webb, who has long experience in the region, serves as chairman of the East
Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. Senator Wedd said
"It is vitally important that the United States
re-engage with Southeast Asia at all
levels;" and
"Our relations with Laos
have never been fully repaired since the end of the Vietnam War more than thirty
years ago. I look forward to working with Lao officials in order to bring our
two countries closer together economically, culturally, and diplomatically."
Senator Webb With Vice Minister Khemmani on Thursday August 13, 2009
Senator Webb's schedule in Laos
includes meetings with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Ministry of National Defense as well as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce
which is responsible for Laos'
bid to join the WTO. Webb also met with the Mekong River Commission and
business leaders to look at investment opportunities for the United
States in Laos
and ways to expand cooperation between the two countries.
Webb has enjoyed a continuous personal involvement in Asian and Pacific affairs
that long predates his time in the Senate. In addition to his more recent
visits as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Webb has worked
and traveled throughout this vast region, from Micronesia
to Burma,
for nearly four decades, as a Marine Corps officer, a defense planner, a
journalist, a novelist, a Department of Defense executive, and as a business
consultant.
Senator Webb & Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith
Webb served as an infantry Marine in Vietnam,
and later as assistant secretary of defense and Secretary of the Navy in the
Pentagon. He also served as an Asia-Pacific regional military planner in Guam,
has written extensively on local, national and international issues in Japan,
Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and in the 1990's worked as a consultant
for companies wishing to do business in Vietnam. He has served on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee since joining the U.S. Senate in January 2007.
As chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, Webb oversees U.S.
relations with countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific
Rim, and Oceana. The subcommittee also oversees regional organizations
such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Special report on the visit of Senator Jim Webb to Laos, translated by Buasawan Simmala
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