VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) – Acknowledging the “challenging history,” President Barack Obama on Tuesday opened a historic visit to this isolated Southeast Asian nation on a mission to heal war wounds and reinvigorate relations with a country with rising strategic importance to the U.S.
Greeted by a military band, traditional dancers and a warm, tropical rain, Obama told Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit he hoped to forge a partnership that would “make our two countries whole again” and promised a new era would “mean greater progress and opportunity for the people of Laos.”
Obama is the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in the impoverished, landlocked country, where for nine years the U.S. conducted a punishing, covert bombing campaign in an effort to cut off communist forces in neighboring Vietnam. The bombardment left behind deep scars, millions of unexploded cluster bombs across the countryside and decades-worth of cleanup.
As a first sign of the new relationship, the Obama administration announced Tuesday it was committed $90 million over the three years to clearing the unexploded ordnance. The U.S. has contributed $100 million to the effort in the last 20 years, as annual deaths have fallen from more than 300 to fewer than 50, the White House said.
The Lao government said it would increase efforts to recover remains and account for Americans missing since the Vietnam War.