Thai king, Laotian president open Mekong bridge

Thai king, Laotian president open Mekong bridge

NONG KHAI, Thailand (Reuter): Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Laotian President Nouhak Phoumsavan yesterday opened the first international bridge over the Mekong River, and perhaps an era of regional peace and prosperity.

Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating looked on as Buddhist monks chanted a blessing and the two heads of state unveiled a plaque in the center of the 1,174-meter bridge, built and paid for by Australia at a cost of A$42 million (US$29.4 million).

"A gift from the peoples of Australia to the people of Thailand and Laos," the plaque read.

Keating, who is on a three-nation trip through Southeast Asia, said the "Friendship Bridge" was more than a link between the Thai trading town of Nong Khai and Tha Naleng on the Laotian side, just 20 kilometers from the Lao capital, Vientiane.

"It establishes a land transport corridor from Singapore to Beijing, thus linking the dynamic economies of Southeast Asia and the region," he said at the ceremony in a pavilion on the bridge.

Bhumibol, accompanied by Queen Sirikit and their daughter Princess Sirindhorn, made immediate use of the bridge to travel to Laos on his first visit outside Thailand since 1967.

The king and Nouhak stepped into the lead vehicle in a motorcade of black Mercedes Benz cars for the inaugural drive.

The bridge has one traffic lane in either direction, with provision for a single railway track down the center. At the Laos end, ramps enable Thailand's left-hand traffic to switch to the right side for Laos.

The Thai love of pageant was given full rein, with children waving flags of all three countries below the parapets and hundreds of military and civilian officers in crisp white uniforms lined up beside the red carpet.

"It is a historic occasion linking not only Thailand and Laos but the entire Indochina with another half of Southeast Asia which is burgeoning, which is prosperous, which is open and dynamic," said Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.

Underlying the fanfare stood the reality of the first permanent link over the Mekong River outside China, where the mighty river has its source in the Tibetan heights before flowing 4,000 kilometers to the South China Sea.

A lifeline for millions of people in China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, the Mekong has also marked the ideological divide between capitalism and communism.

Construction of the bridge had been proposed several times, but plans continually lapsed as decades of warfare swept through Indochina, and more recently because of political differences between Thailand and Laos.

The two countries only last weekend concluded weeks of wrangling and signed an agreement on jurisdiction and joint management of the bridge.

But travelers from Thailand must wait until Monday, possibly longer, before Laos has border controls in place to handle the expected invasion of businessmen and tourists.