By Sahil Pandey

New Delhi [India], June 3 (ANI): Highlighting the immense untapped potential between India and Laos, Thongsavan Phomvihane, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Southeast Asian nation, has called for a deeper strategic push to achieve 'tangible outcomes' as the two countries mark the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

Speaking to ANI on his maiden visit to India, Phomvihane emphasised bilateral cooperation across key sectors, including a robust joint commitment to dismantling transnational internet scam centres.

The Lao Deputy PM, who recently attended the second Laos-India Business Forum, acknowledged that while current bilateral trade remains 'modest', the scope for growth is massive.

'I just came back from the second business forum between Laos and India, so the forum is discussing how to expand our relations and cooperation, especially in the commercial sector, tourism and other areas that both sides are interested in,' Phomvihane told ANI.

'The trade between our two countries is still very modest, but we know that Laos and India still have a lot of opportunity, a lot of potential that we should expand. Also, I hope that the forum is going to be successful. We are expecting to exchange more in bilateral relations and bilateral cooperation, because we're looking forward to expanding our cooperation to explore our potential,' he added.

Pointing to the unpredictable global geopolitical landscape, he stated that 'nowadays the situation around us is not easy; it's very hard to predict'.

'We think that between us and India, we have very long and good relations. This year is the 70th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. So we have seven decades of our very good relations. It is time for us to look deeper into how to explore more tangible outcomes of our relationship,' he added.

Addressing the growing menace of cybercrime and cyber-slavery networks operating in Southeast Asia, Phomvihane asserted that tackling internet scams is a top national priority for Laos. He expressed strong readiness to partner with New Delhi to protect citizens from both nations.

'Internet scams are something very active nowadays. Tackling this is the Lao People's Democratic Republic's priority. It was one of our national agendas to address that scamming,' Phomvihane said.

'Recently, with the very good collaboration of our neighbouring countries and with other partners, we have quite successfully tackled that. With India, we are ready. We have good collaboration to tackle this because I think it's in the interest of both countries to tackle this,' he further added.

Sharing his personal experiences from his first-ever visit to India, the Lao Deputy PM spoke fondly of his visit to the Taj Mahal, marvelling not just at its beauty but also at the engineering genius behind it.

'This is my first time in India. The Taj Mahal is a very famous place in the world. It's one of the world's heritages. I was very impressed by its amazing architecture, and also not just architecture, but it's really based on the scientific background of all these buildings. It's really impressive, and I learned the history of that. That's my first impression and very interesting,' Phomvihane concluded. (ANI)