Guwahati: Laos, a Southeast Asian nation, is looking for improved cultural and sports exchange program with Assam as a way to build better relations with India.
This was disclosed by Indian Ambassador to Laos Ravi Shankar Aisola.
He was speaking after the second 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying match between India and held June 7 at Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam, a northeastern Indian state.
Aisola also said that more cultural and sporting activities were required to bring Laos and the northeast closer.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal also had a talk with the Laotian Ambassador and discussed a range of issues of mutual importance to India and Laos, and more particularly Assam.
“Assam was keen to work with Laos in the fields of trade and commerce, cultural exchange, sports and strengthening road connectivity through Myanmar,” said a government release here.
Habib Mohammed Chowdhury, a business man from Assam who had been doing business in Laos for 18 years, was also at the press conference highlighting the scopes and opportunities that Laos offers for investors.
Aisola also said that Laos is still very less known to India and that efforts are on for bridging the gaps.
Laos is a landlocked country in the heart of the Indochinese peninsula of Mainland Southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west.
Aisola joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986. He has served in different capacities in Indian Missions in Paris, Abidjan, Damascus and Budapest and as Consul General of India in Vancouver, Canada. His wife Priti Aisola, who is a writer and novelist lives with him in Vientiane, Laos capital.