Laos–Myanmar relations is the long, complicated relationship between two neighbors,

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. Myanmar has an embassy in

Vientiane Vientiane (, ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Laos. Situated on the banks of the Mekong, Mekong River at the Thailand, Thai border, it comprises the five urban districts of Vientiane Prefecture and had a population of 840,000 ...

and Laos has an embassy in

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

History and modern relations

While the two countries share common

Theravada Buddhism ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' ( anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or '' Dhamma'' in ...

, both often engaged in war from 16th century onward. The

Taungoo dynasty ''taungnguumainn saat'' , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , status = Empire/ Kingdom , event_start = Independence from Ava Kingdom , year_start = 15 ...

had conquered Laos during the reign of

Bayinnaung , title = King of Toungoo , image = Bayinnaung.JPG , caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar , reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581 , coronation = 11 January 1551 at Taungoo, ...

Setthathirath Setthathirath (; 24 January 1534 – 1571) or Xaysettha (; , , ) is considered one of the great leaders in Lao history. Throughout the 1560s until his death, he successfully defended his kingdom of Lan Xang against military campaigns of Burmese ...

led the

Lan Xang Lan Xang () or Lancang was a Lao people, Lao kingdom that held the area of present-day Laos from 1353 to 1707. For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The kingdom is the basis for Laos's nat ...

Kingdom into a resistance war against the Burmese but failed. With the collapse of Taungoo Empire, the Laotians soon restored their nation from the Burmese. The Burmese would go on to conquer Laos for the second time as

Konbaung dynasty The Konbaung dynasty (), also known as the Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in history of Mya ...

, and Lan Xang this time was unable to fend off again. Similar to the first invasion, Burma would go on crippled due to war with the Chinese that saw Lan Xang regain independence for the second time. In the 19th century, both would go on to become British and French colony separately. Since then, there had been no relationship between two and the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

that occurred near the Laotian border also prevented Laos and Burma from establishing official relations. Laos and Myanmar only established official ties starting in the 1990s.

Cooperation

Since the 1990s, increasing cooperation started as both countries joined the

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

. In 2015, the first official friendship bridge between the two neighbors was opened. Both countries have attempted to expand bilateral trade and cooperation.

History and modern relations

Cooperation

See also

References

Further reading