Russia to Build Airport and Military Facility in Laos

20 April 2021

Xieng Khouang province of Laos (image : GoogleMaps)

Russia to Build Airport in Laos, Train Armed Forces in Sign of Strengthening Military Ties

Russian troops have been clearing an area of around 500 hectares of unexploded ordnance, or UXO, in Laos’ Xieng Khouang province with plans to build a new airport and military facility as part of an expansion of military aid to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, according to Lao officials.

A Russian demining team has been working with Lao counterparts to clear the UXO since Dec. 5, provincial officials recently told RFA’s Lao Service, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans with the media.

“The Russians came here to build a military airport on the other side of the Plain of Jars,” one of the officials said, referring to the archeological landscape in the Xieng Khouang Plateau that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.

“They’re currently clearing the UXO and then they’re going to upgrade the existing airport, making it larger and more beautiful.”

Another Xieng Khouang official, who is a provincial military officer, provided further details about the new airport to RFA.

“The Russian and Lao armed forces together are building this new airport that will be larger than the existing one and will be divided in two different zones,” he said.

“One zone is for Lao and Russian military use and the other is for civilian use.”

New airport divided into two purpose, one for military use and the other for civilian use (photo : KienThuc)

The officer said that the Russian military intends to provide substantial assistance to Laos going forward, including with training and developing the latter’s armed forces.

“Some work on the new airport has already begun, but the actual construction will not start anytime soon because the UXO clearance will take some time,” he said.

“Once the UXO has been cleared, we’ll lay underground powerlines. We’ll do our work step by step.”

Besides the airport, the Russians intend to expand military cooperation with Laos that will include building a facility to train Lao troops on how to use Russian military equipment, according to a report by Russian news agency Sputniknews.com.

A former senior government official in Laos told RFA that the two sides are expanding cooperation in line with an agreement they have in place on security and defense, as well as the new airport.

“In the agreements, most cooperation would include training and teaching military techniques to the Lao armed forces,” said the former official, who also declined to be named.

“We had more cooperation and more Russian military presence in Laos during the Soviet era,” he added.

RFA spoke with an official at the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs who claimed not to know anything about the Russian military aid projects.

See full article VOA