Realtime Coverage - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on historic Laos visit

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) became the first US secretary of state to visit Laos for 57 years, on a trip focused on the damaging legacy of the Vietnam War and a controversial dam project. — PHOTO: AFP

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on historic Laos visit

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In Laos, Clinton’s chance to undo lethal legacy

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In Depth

In Historic Visit, Clinton Reaches Out to Laos

TIME

Clinton makes historic trip to Laos

ABC Online

Clinton Lands in Laos to Discuss War Legacy

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On Visit to Laos, Clinton Is Reminded of Vietnam War

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US Looks to Tiny Laos for Influence

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Opinion

In Laos, Clinton’s chance to undo lethal legacy

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Public Schedule for July 10, 2012

US Department of State (press release)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
PUBLIC SCHEDULE
TUESDAY JULY 10, 2012

SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

Secretary Clinton is on foreign travel to Hanoi, Vietnam. The Secretary is accompanied by Under Secretary Hormats, Assistant Secretary Campbell, Chief of Protocol Marshall, Spokesperson Nuland, Director Sullivan, VADM Harry B. Harris, Jr., JCS., and White House Senior Director for Asian Affairs Daniel Russel. Please click here for more information.

1:45 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton meets with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CAMERA SPRAY PRECEDING MEETING)

2:30 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton holds a joint press availability with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

3:15 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton attends a Fulbright 20th Anniversary event, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

4:05 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CAMERA SPRAY PRECEDING MEETING)

5:10 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton meets with General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CAMERA SPRAY PRECEDING MEETING)

6:15 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton attends an American Chamber of Commerce reception and commercial signings, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

DEPUTY SECRETARY BILL BURNS

Deputy Secretary Burns is on regional travel to the Middle East. Please click here for more information.

DEPUTY SECRETARY TOM NIDES

10:00 a.m.Deputy Secretary Nides meets with Ambassador Rick Olson, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

USAID ADMINSITRATOR RAJ SHAH

Administrator Shah travels to London, England to participate in the London Summit on Family Planning, convened by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS WENDY SHERMAN

3:15 p.m.Under Secretary Sherman meets with the following Senators from Russia: Valery Shnyakin, Alexey Chernyshev, Vitaly Malkin and Alexander Savenkov, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ROBERT HORMATS

Under Secretary Hormats is on foreign travel to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Burma through July 15 to promote U.S. economic ties with ASEAN. On Tuesday, he joins Secretary Clinton in Hanoi, Vietnam to meet with government and business leaders and participate in events arranged by the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council. Please click here for more information.

10:30 a.m. LOCAL Under Secretary Hormats meets with U.S. Ambassador David Shear, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

12:15 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats attends the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council Luncheon, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

1:45 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats joins Secretary Clinton’s meeting with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CAMERA SPRAY PRECEDING MEETING)

3:15 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats attends a Fulbright 20^th Anniversary event, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

4:05 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats joins Secretary Clinton’s meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CAMERA SPRAY PRECEDING MEETING)

5:10 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats joins Secretary Clinton’s meeting with General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CAMERA SPRAY PRECEDING MEETING)

6:15 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats joins Secretary Clinton for a an American Chamber of Commerce reception and commercial signings, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

7:00 p.m. LOCALUnder Secretary Hormats attends an AmCham Hanoi event, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS TARA SONENSHINE

2:30 p.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine delivers remarks for the Foreign Policy Classroom series, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

6:30 p.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine attends the farewell reception for Egyptian Ambassador Sameh Shoukry and the National Day celebration of Egypt, at the Embassy of Egypt, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

UNDER SECRETARY FOR CIVILIAN SECURITY, DEMOCRACY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS MARIA OTERO

Under Secretary Otero is on foreign travel in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey through July 13 to discuss regional cooperation, displacement, trafficking in persons, human rights issues, and youth engagement. She will also travel to Jordan from July 15-July 16. Please click here for more information.

CHIEF OF PROTOCOL AMBASSADOR CAPRICIA PENAVIC MARSHALL

Ambassador Marshall accompanies Secretary Clinton on foreign travel. Please click here for more information.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CONFLICT AND STABILIZATION OPERATIONS RICK BARTON

9:45 a.m. Assistant Secretary Barton speaks with U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala Arnold Chacon.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS WILLIAM BROWNFIELD

1:00 p.m.Assistant Secretary Brownfield meets with Yury Fedotov, Under-Secretary-General of the UN Office in Vienna, Austria and Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

4:30 p.m.Assistant Secretary Brownfield meets with Attorney General Eric Holder, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

7:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Brownfield attends an event in honor of Colombian Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre, at the Colombian Ambassador’s Residence.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS KURT CAMPBELL

Assistant Secretary Campbell accompanies Secretary Clinton on foreign travel. Please click here for more information.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS JOSE FERNANDEZ

11:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Fernandez meets with GE President and CEO for the Middle East and Turkey Nabil Habayeb and GE Senior Counsel James Renigar, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

12:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Fernandez meets with Department of Commerce Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser Steve Olson, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS PHIL GORDON

Assistant Secretary Gordon is on foreign travel to France, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Cyprus through July 12. Please click here for more information.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS MIKE HAMMER

2:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Hammer delivers opening remarks at the Foreign Policy Classroom, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ROBERTA JACOBSON

6:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity ceremony, in Washington.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR MICHAEL POSNER

Assistant Secretary Posner is on travel through July 16 to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Egypt.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS ANDREW SHAPIRO

11:00 a.m. Assistant Secretary Shapiro meets with Major General Frederick Martin, Air Mobility Command, Director of Operations, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

2:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Shapiro meets with Admiral Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, at the Pentagon.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR AMBASSADOR ERIC GOOSBY

8:00 a.m.Ambassador Goosby delivers remarks at the launch of the PEPFAR special-edition issue of Health Affairs policy journal, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
Please click here for more information and here to view a live webcast of the event.

AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES MELANNE VERVEER

Ambassador Verveer is on foreign travel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where she will participate in the Women’s Leadership Forum and the Community of Democracies’ Governing Council Meeting and meet with female leaders from government and civil society. Please click here for more information.

SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS KRIS BALDERSTON

Special Representative Balderston is on foreign travel in Siem Reap, Cambodia to participate in the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy Dialogue for the Lower Mekong Initiative.

SPECIAL ENVOY TO MONITOR AND COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM HANNAH ROSENTHAL

Special Envoy Rosenthal is on foreign travel in Germany through July 12 and Poland from from July 13 through 15. Please click here for more information.

DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING JAKE SULLIVAN

Director Sullivan accompanies Secretary Clinton on foreign travel. Please click here for more information.

PRESS BRIEFING SCHEDULE

12:30 p.m. There will be an off-camera, on-the-record briefing in the press briefing room with Patrick Ventrell, Director of the Office of Press Relations.

On Visit to Laos, Clinton Is Reminded of Vietnam War

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/world/middleeast/on-visit-to-laos-clinton-is-reminded-of-vietnam-war.html

July 11, 2012

By JANE PERLEZ

Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday visited with Phongsavath Souliyalat, who lost his forearms and sight from a blast of an unexploded bomb.

VIENTIANE, Laos – Traveling in Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday made a brief stop in Laos, the first visit by an American secretary of state in 57 years and one that was marked by the enduring legacy of the Vietnam War.

At an artificial limb center, Mrs. Clinton met a 19-year-old who lost his forearms and eyesight when a bomb, dropped by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War and unexploded for decades, finally blew up three year ago.

The young man, Phongsavath Sonilya, gesticulated with his arm stumps as he explained to Mrs. Clinton that more than 30 years after the end of the war, more still had to be done to stop the use of cluster bombs and to support victims of those still lying unexploded in the countryside. The United States has not signed the Convention on Cluster Bombs.

The four-hour visit by Mrs. Clinton to Laos provided other reminders of the Vietnam War.

The government is run by the Communist Party, and five of the nine members of the Politburo, including the Prime Minister, Thongsing Thammavong, who met with Mrs. Clinton, are veterans of the Pathet Lao guerrilla group that supported North Vietnam against the United States. Until 1975, Vientiane, the capital, had a strong American influence. After Saigon fell, more than 1,200 Americans were evacuated from Laos when the Pathet Lao backed by the Soviet Union took power.

Now Laos is closely aligned with China, its biggest benefactor by far with investments of more than $4 billion in mining, hydropower and agriculture. The Chinese built many of the main buildings in the relaxed tropical capital, and are now constructing a new convention center with 50 villas for a European-Asian summit in November, a meeting that excludes the United States.

Mrs. Clinton’s visit, in keeping with the understated nature of the people, was quite subtle. When Secretary of State John Foster Dulles came here in 1955, he tried to persuade the Lao royal family to drop their neutrality in the Cold War and join the American camp. Mrs. Clinton did not attempt anything as brazen as mentioning China, though the import of her visit – to seek warmer relations between the United States and Laos – was quite clear.

There was no news conference with the Prime Minister, but a carefully worded statement negotiated by both sides that noted the upcoming entry of Laos into the World Trade Organization, and co-operation between the United States and Laos on environmental protection.

After the meeting with the prime minister, the State Department said that Laos had decided to suspend the construction of the Xayaburi dam, a project being built by Thailand to send electricity to Thailand.

Neighboring countries have complained that the dam would upset the flow of the Mekong River, the main waterway of Southeast Asia.

At the center that provides artificial limbs, known as the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise, Mrs. Clinton viewed a map embedded with red dots that showed where bombs were dropped along the Ho Chi Minh trail and on the Plain of Jars. There were more than 580,000 bombing missions by the United States Air Force, making Laos the most heavily bombed country on a per capita basis, the text said.

More than 30 percent of the bombs remained unexploded, leaving Laos with a deadly problem in rural areas that persists until today.

Each bomb contained about 600 bomblets, and in recent years 100 people have been killed by unexploded ordinance, 40 percent of them children.

Rural people often scavenge for the bombs, believing the metal has value. Young children think they are toys, said Soksai Sengvongkham, the operations manager of the visitors center. As she toured the center, Mrs. Clinton asked several times why more sophisticated technology could not be used to find the bombs, which are currently located by workers with metal detectors.

There was evidence, too, of the low cost nature of some of the home-made limbs that farmers put together using bamboo, metal tubes from bombs, and wood, while they awaited more professional limbs.

After the visit to the center, Mrs. Clinton said it was “a painful reminder of the Vietnam War era.”

“The international community will join us in our efforts to bring this legacy of the Vietnam War to a safe end,” she said.

From Laos, Mrs. Clinton flew to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, for the annual meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations.

-

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Clinton Presses Laos for More Studies on Mekong Dam in Visit

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-11/clinton-lands-in-laos-to-discuss-mekong-dam-war-legacy.html

By Daniel Ten Kate and Nicole Gaouette – Jul 11, 2012 5:30 AM ET

Hillary Clinton pushed Laos for more studies on a $3.6 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River opposed by neighboring countries in the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State in 57 years.

The trip is part of a broader sweep Clinton is making through Asia as the U.S. increases its engagement with the world’s fastest growing economies, in part to counter China’s growing clout. Laos, a landlocked nation of 6 million people bordering China, plans to expand its generating capacity and sell electricity to its neighbors.

Laotian Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong assured Clinton that the Xayaburi power project wouldn’t proceed without approval from neighboring countries, according to a State Department official who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. Laos plans to hold an international conference about the project to ease concerns, the official said.

The dam remains an area of contention as the U.S. seeks to broaden its engagement with Laos, which is still struggling with unexploded ordnance left over from the Vietnam War. Clinton discussed cooperation on the deadly material as well as accounting for U.S. personnel who remain missing, according to a joint statement. Laos is the smallest economy among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Dam Studies

The Xayaburi dam’s approval may pave the way for seven others that Laos plans to build on the Mekong. The government has aimed to convince its neighbors by showing them studies it commissioned from Compagnie Nationale du Rhône and Switzerland- based Poyry Energy AG.

“Both the reports of Poyry and CNR indicated that the project has created a negligible impact in respect of environmental and social considerations,” Xaypaseuth Phomsoupha, director-general of Laos’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, told reporters in Bangkok on June 20.

While Laos is building access roads and other infrastructure around the dam site, construction on the river itself won’t start “in the absence of the sign-off from our neighbors,” he said.

Vietnam has recommended a 10-year delay for all hydropower projects over environmental concerns on the river, which winds through Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia from its source in China’s Tibetan plateau. About 60 million people along the Mekong depend on the river and its tributaries for food, water and transportation.

Thai Financiers

In 2010, Thailand made an initial agreement to buy 95 percent of the electricity from the Xayaburi plant, which will have a capacity of 1,285 megawatts.

Ch. Karnchang Pcl (CK), Thailand’s third-biggest construction company by market value, owns a 57.5 percent stake in the Xayaburi project. PTT Pcl (PTT), Thailand’s biggest company, has a 25 percent stake and Electricity Generating Pcl (EGCO) owns 12.5 percent.

In her meetings with Thongsing and Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Clinton discussed environmental protection, Laos’s entry to the World Trade Organization and the reintegration of ethnic minority Hmong people who fled to Thailand in 2009, according to the statement. The U.S. resettled 130,000 Hmong who fled to Thailand from 1975 to 1996, according to the State Department.

Unauthorized by Congress, U.S. planes dropped the equivalent of one plane-load of bombs over Laos every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973, according to the non-profit Virginia-based advocacy group, Legacies of War.

Unexploded Bombs

Intended to stop communist ground incursions and disrupt North Vietnamese traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the bombings left Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. One ton of bombs was dropped for every man, woman, and child in Laos at the time.

Today, an estimated one third of land remains unusable because of unexploded ordnance, making it unavailable for food production or development, according to Legacies of War. In the 40 years since the war ended, 20,000 people have been killed or maimed by dormant explosives hidden in the soil.

Clinton’s visit demonstrates that she “recognizes that bringing along the less developed countries of the lower Mekong region is key for stability and development in the region,” Brett Dakin, head of Legacies of War’s board of directors, said in an e-mail. “However,” he said, “Laos will not reach its full potential as long as much of its land is still contaminated with unexploded bombs.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net; Daniel Ten Kate in Phnom Penh at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Brinsley at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net

In historic visit, Clinton reaches out to Laos

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/In-historic-visit-Clinton-reaches-out-to-Laos-3697836.php

BRADLEY KLAPPER, Associated Press

Updated 01:29 a.m., Wednesday, July 11, 2012

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, is greeted by Laotian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith before a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vientiane, Laos Wednesday, July 11, 2012. Clinton is making a historic visit to Laos, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in more than five decades. Photo: Brendan Smialowski, Pool / AP

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos in more than five decades, gauging whether a place the United States pummeled with bombs during the Vietnam War could evolve into a new foothold of American influence in Asia.

Clinton met with the communist government’s prime minister and foreign minister in the capital of Vientiane on Wednesday, part of a weeklong diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia. The goal is to bolster America’s standing in some of the fastest growing markets of the world, and counter China’s expanding economic, diplomatic and military dominance of the region.

Thirty-seven years since the end of America’s long war in Indochina, Laos is the latest test case of the Obama administration’s efforts to “pivot” U.S. foreign policy away from the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It follows a long period of estrangement between Washington and a once hostile Cold War-era foe, and comes as U.S. relations warm with countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam.

In her meetings, Clinton discussed environmental concerns over a proposed dam on the Mekong River, investment opportunities and joint efforts to clean up the tens of millions of unexploded bombs the U.S. dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War. Greater American support programs in these fields will be included in a multimillion-dollar initiative for Southeast Asia to be announced later this week.

After the meetings, she said they “traced the arc of our relationship from addressing the tragic legacies of the past to finding a way to being partners of the future.”

Clinton also visited a Buddhist temple and a U.S.-funded prosthetic center for victims of American munitions.

At the prosthetic center, she met a man named Phongsavath Souliyalat, who told her how he had lost both his hands and his eyesight from a cluster bomb on his 16th birthday.

“We have to do more,” Clinton told him. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here today, so that we can tell more people about the work that we should be doing together.”

The last U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos was John Foster Dulles in 1955. His plane landed after being forced to circle overhead while a water buffalo was cleared from the tarmac.

At that time, the mountainous, sparsely populated nation was at the center of U.S. foreign policy. On leaving office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned his successor, John F. Kennedy, that if Laos fell to the communists, all Southeast Asia could be lost as well.

While Vietnam ended up the focal point of America’s “domino theory” foreign policy, Laos was drawn deeply into the conflict as the U.S. funded its anti-communist forces and bombed North Vietnamese supply lines and bases.

The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on the impoverished country during its “secret war” between 1964 and 1973 — about a ton of ordnance for each Laotian man, woman and child. That exceeded the amount dropped on Germany and Japan together in World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed nation per person in history.

Four decades later, American weapons are still claiming lives. When the war ended, about a third of some 270 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos had failed to detonate, leaving the country awash in unexploded munitions. More than 20,000 people have been killed by ordnance in postwar Laos, according to its government, and contamination throughout the country is a major barrier to agricultural development.

Cleanup has been excruciatingly slow. The Washington-based Legacies of War says only 1 percent of contaminated lands have been cleared and has called on Washington to provide far greater assistance. The State Department has provided $47 million since 1997, though a larger effort could make Laos “bomb-free in our lifetimes,” California Rep. Mike Honda argued.

“Let us mend the wounds of the past together so that Laos can begin a new legacy of peace,” said Honda, who is Japanese-American.

The U.S. is spending $9 million this year on cleanup operations for unexploded ordnance in Laos, but is likely to offer more in the coming days.

It is part of a larger Obama administration effort to reorient the direction of U.S. diplomacy and commercial policy as the world’s most populous continent becomes the center of the global economy over the next century. It is also a reaction to China’s expanding influence.

Despite America’s difficult history in the region, nations in Beijing’s backyard are welcoming the greater engagement — and the promise of billions of dollars more in American investment. The change has been sudden, with some longtime U.S. foes now seeking a relationship that could serve at least as a counterweight to China’s regional hegemony.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has made significant strides toward reform and democracy after decades as an international pariah, when it was universally scorned for its atrocious labor rights record and its long repression of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi‘s pro-democracy movement. The Obama administration is expected to ease investment restrictions in the country this week.

Vietnam, threatened by Beijing’s claims to the resource-rich South China Sea, has dramatically deepened diplomatic and commercial ties with the United States, with their two-country trade now exceeding $22 billion a year — from nothing two decades ago. Clinton on Tuesday made her third trip to the fast-growing country, meeting with senior communist officials to prod them into greater respect for free expression and labor rights.

Landlocked and impoverished Laos offers fewer resources than its far larger neighbors and has lagged in Asia’s economic boom. It remains one of the poorest countries in Asia, even as it hopes to kick-start its development with accession soon to the World Trade Organization.

In recent years, China has stepped up as Laos’ principal source of assistance, with loans and grants of up to $350 million over the last two decades. But like many others in its region, Laos’ government is wary of Beijing’s intentions. And it has kept an envious eye on neighboring Vietnam’s 40 percent surge in commercial trade with the United States over the last two years, as well as the sudden rapprochement between the U.S. and nearby Myanmar.

Persistent human rights issues stand in the way of closer relations with Washington. The U.S. remains concerned about the plight of the ethnic Hmong minority, most of whom fled the country after fighting for a U.S.-backed guerilla army during the Vietnam War. Nearly 250,000 resettled in the United States. The U.S. has pressed Laos to respect the rights of returnees from neighboring countries.

Washington also has been seeking greater cooperation from Laos on the search for U.S. soldiers missing in action since the Vietnam War. More than 300 Americans remain unaccounted for in Laos.

And it is pressing the government to hold off on a proposed $3.5 billion dam project across the Mekong River. The dam would be the first across the river’s mainstream and has sparked a barrage of opposition from neighboring countries and environmental groups, which warn that tens of millions of livelihoods could be at stake.

The project is currently on hold and Washington hopes to stall it further with the promise of funds for new environmental studies.