Senior Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Gấu (right), Deputy Minister of National Defence and head of the Việt Nam Government's Special Working Committee, and Senior Lieutenant General Vongsone Inpanphim (left), member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, Deputy Minister of National Defence, Director of the General Political Department of the Lao People's Army, and head of the Lao Government's Special Working Committee, sign the official minutes of the 31st meeting. VNA/VNS Photo Xuân Khu

HCM CITY — Việt Nam and Laos on Monday agreed to further strengthen cooperation during the 2026–27 dry season to accelerate the search, recovery and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in Laos during past wars.

The agreement was reached at the 31st meeting between the Việt Nam Government's Special Working Committee and its Lao counterpart on the search, recovery and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who lost their lives in Laos. The meeting was held in HCM City on Monday.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by Senior Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Gấu, Deputy Minister of National Defence and head of the Government's Special Working Committee.

The Lao delegation was headed by Senior Lieutenant General Vongsone Inpanphim, member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, Deputy Minister of National Defence, Director of the General Political Department of the Lao People's Army, and head of the Lao Government's Special Working Committee.

The two sides highly valued the progress made in implementing the outcomes of their 30th meeting. Despite the growing difficulty in locating burial sites due to the passage of time, they noted that search and recovery operations had continued in a coordinated and effective manner.

During the 2025–26 dry season, Vietnamese search teams recovered the remains of 173 fallen soldiers in Laos. The two countries' Special Working Committees and local authorities maintained close coordination, promptly addressing challenges encountered during search, recovery and repatriation efforts.

The Lao side continued to provide extensive support to Vietnamese recovery teams and actively encouraged local communities to share information on the burial sites of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in Laos during the wars.

Both sides agreed to intensify public awareness campaigns in the two countries to encourage people to provide information on fallen soldiers and burial sites, helping improve the effectiveness of future search and repatriation efforts.

For the 2026–27 dry season, the two countries agreed to continue promoting public outreach to gather more information on the burial sites of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts in Laos.

The two Special Working Committees and provincial military commands will strengthen information sharing, exchange experience and coordinate more closely in directing search and recovery operations. They also agreed to increase joint inspections and evaluations of recovery efforts and to promptly recognise and reward organisations and individuals with outstanding contributions.

The two countries will also instruct their standing agencies to propose new measures to enhance search and recovery operations, expand delegation exchanges, coordinate the review and collection of information on fallen soldiers and burial sites, and conduct joint surveys and assessments of cooperation between local special working committees. — VNS