Laos has confirmed its interest in joining both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS. Laotian Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone said in an interview with RT that the country is looking to expand economic partnerships and open up new trade routes.

Although not a full member of the SCO, Laos was recently granted dialogue partner status. President Thongloun Sisoulith represented the country at the recent SCO summit in China, underscoring the importance Laos places on this growing relationship.

"We have always highly valued the cooperation mechanism and especially to further develop our economy and trade," the prime minister said when asked about the country's recent entry into the SCO as a dialogue partner. He added that "this will further broaden our cooperation in terms of economy, trade and investment among the member states and dialogue partners."

"Even though our economy is not of a bigger scale, this dialogue partnership will open opportunities," Siphandone said. He explained that Laos hopes to "reach the member states and other dialogue partners," especially in response to "certain tariff measures by certain states against our products." Last month, the United States imposed 40% tariffs on Laotian exports.

Siphandone also highlighted Laos' intention to join BRICS. He pointed to its "big portion of the global population and with high rates of GDP increase shown each year." The bloc surpassed the G7 in terms of combined GDP in PPP terms in 2019.

He said Laos views BRICS as "a significant cooperation platform" for global trade across Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. Siphandone added that the group promotes "a turning point from a unipolar world into a multipolar world," and supports multilateral cooperation over "unilateral measures."

Laos' goal, according to Siphandone, is to pursue "economic cooperation that is free, free of choice, and fair in our negotiation processes."

Comment: Trump has been doing a great job in getting countries to commit to the SCO and BRICS organisations. The blackmail and bullying which the US has done before behind the scenes are now done openly and it opening up people's eyes.

That Laos has not turned away from the US before is amazing considering that Laos thanks to the US, has the record of being the most heavily bombed country in the world.

Between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1 million tons of bombs the US dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II. This made Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population; The New York Times notes this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos".^[44]

Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. Unexploded ordnance (UXO), including cluster munitions and mines, kill or maim approximately 50 Laotians every year.

From 1973 and until 1995, the US didn't do any mine clerance in Laos (according to Grok). Since then the US has invested $391 million towards mine clearance, but has never paid reparations for those killed and maimed by the ordinances. USAID did do mine clearance in Laos, before it was cut down, but what else did USAID get up to, while they were having the humanitarian front of clearing mines? Is this new openness to align with SCO and the BRICS countries also linked indirectly to the recent cut in USAID in Laos as it would also limit the power of the darker subversive activities of the USAID/CIA guys?