Relationship dossier
Laos
United States
Relationship assessment
Practical cooperation has grown, while wartime legacies and governance differences remain significant
Laos toward United States
+35The Lao government has cooperated with U.S. efforts to account for U.S. personnel missing from the Vietnam War era and has engaged in bilateral cooperation on unexploded ordnance and the 2016 Comprehensive Partnership.
United States toward Laos
+35The U.S. government has supported unexploded ordnance clearance in Laos, pursued cooperation on accounting for missing U.S. personnel, and expanded bilateral engagement through the 2016 Comprehensive Partnership.
Overall relationship
+30The relationship combines sustained, practical cooperation on wartime legacies and broader bilateral engagement with the enduring impact of U.S. bombing and differences over governance and human rights. These features support a generally cooperative but not close partnership.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Laos and the United States have expanded practical cooperation since normalizing relations in 1995. Their governments work on unexploded ordnance clearance and accounting for U.S. personnel missing from the Vietnam War era, and developed a Comprehensive Partnership in 2016. The relationship also carries the legacy of extensive U.S. bombing of Laos and continuing differences over human rights and governance.
Areas of tension
- The legacy of U.S. bombing in Laos and the continuing presence of unexploded ordnance.
- U.S. concerns about human rights and governance in Laos.
Key developments
Laos and the United States normalized diplomatic relations.
The two governments established a Comprehensive Partnership, broadening bilateral engagement.
The governments have cooperated on unexploded ordnance clearance and accounting for U.S. personnel missing from the Vietnam War era.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and implementation of current bilateral cooperation beyond ordnance clearance and missing-personnel accounting are unclear.
- The extent to which human-rights and governance differences affect government cooperation is uncertain.