Laos in 2004 Towards Subregional Integration

The year 2004 marked tenth anniversary of opening of first Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge that permits travel by road between Vientiane and Nongkhai. The completion of bridge seemed to signal beginning of a new era. Wars in region had frozen project for almost three decades. As recently as 1987-88, Thailand and Laos were involved in a border dispute that escalated into a military conflict. The bridge therefore appeared to highlight a significant shift in relationship between two countries, with cooperation being privileged over confrontation. Yet, Martin Stuart-Fox sounded a note of caution when he wrote in 1995 that the Friendship Bridge [serves] as a symbol of threat or hope, depending on perspective.1 His article in this annual was among rare analyses of Laos' post-Cold War challenges regarding regional integration. The historian furthermore observed: whether bridge exists or not, Laos will still find it impossible to isolate itself from changes now occurring in mainland Southeast Asia.2 His comment was accurate, albeit somewhat premature. The 1997 Asian financial crisis brutally hit all Southeast Asian countries' economies and Laos began to have second thoughts over direction of her own economic development;3 her rapprochement with China thus reached a new level during that period. Nevertheless, despite general slowdown of regional projects in aftermath of Asian crisis, Laos' economic subregional integration was always to be an irreversible movement, favoured by all sides, i.e., country itself, its neighbours (first and

Geography · Political science · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Global trade and economics · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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