(VOVworld)-Vietnamese and Lao border officials agreed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in border management during their 26th annual meeting in Vientiane on Thursday. Both sides stressed that border management and protection have been effective and that the fight against trans-border crimes involving national security, drug trafficking and religious practices has made positive contributions to maintaining sovereignty, ensuring political security, social safety and order in border areas.

The 26th annual meeting of Vietnamese and Lao border officials (Source: VNA)

They reviewed a project on increasing and upgrading national border markers and underlined the progress in collaboration in economy, trade, culture, education, health care and tourism among border localities. This year, Vietnam and Laos are due to approve an agreement on border and border gate management mechanisms and a protocol on borderline and border markers. They will sum up the one-stop shop model and continue carrying out the government-level agreement on the settlement of free migration and unlicensed marriages in border areas.