Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith meets with Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao in Vientiane, Laos on Feb. 2, 2018(Xinhua/Qin Qing)

VIENTIANE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith met here Friday with Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao on relations and bilateral media cooperation.

Thongloun welcomed Cai to visit Laos and attend the first Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum. He said that the forum is an implementation of the outcomes of the attendance by Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit, also general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing last May, and the state visit to Laos by Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, in November last year.

He said Laos is among the first countries to support the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Lao strategy of turning itself from a "land-locked" country to a "land-linked" one is highly compatible with the initiative. The China-Laos railway which is expected to be completed in 2021 will benefit Laos.

The prime minister highly appreciated the role that Xinhua has played in strengthening Laos-China traditional friendship, boosting understanding between the two peoples, enhancing Laos-China relations as well as supporting the development of media sector in Laos. He hoped Cai's visit will further strengthen media cooperation between the two sides.

For his part, Cai expressed gratitude to the Lao government for awarding Xinhua and himself the medals of freedom.

He noted that Xinhua co-organized the Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum with Commission for Propaganda and Training of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, and the Lao News Agency (KPL), with the aim to implement agreements reached by leaders of the two countries, and to build a bridge of communication and cooperation between enterprises of two countries.

Cai said that with promotion from top leaders of the two countries, the China-Laos relations have reached the highest level, and so should the relations between media sectors of the two sides. Xinhua is willing to strengthen cooperation with the KPL and other Lao media organizations to covey to the world true information about China and the Laos.