Laos says on track for ASEAN-EU meet

Laos says on track for ASEAN-EU meet

HANOI (Reuters): Laos said on Friday the political crisis in
military-ruled Myanmar would not affect an ASEAN-EU meeting
scheduled for December in Vientiane and that it had taken
necessary security steps after a series of bomb blasts this year.

Laotian Information Minister Sileua Bounkham told reporters on
the sidelines of a ministerial conference in Hanoi on Friday that
there was no problem with security in Vientiane, despite a spate
of bomb blasts earlier this year, which he blamed on "economic
reasons

Concerns have been raised that Myanmar's treatment of its
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) could derail the
long-delayed meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations and European Union in Vientiane, the
Laotian capital.

It is the first such meeting since February 1997 when the EU
protested against Myanmar joining ASEAN.