US Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) recently visited Laos and Vietnam. The trip included meetings with government and business leaders to strengthen economic ties between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), support regional security, and advance US-Lao relations.
US Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) traveled to Vietnam and Laos for an official Senate delegation visit last month. The trip aimed at strengthening US relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) across shared priority issues and supported the Senator’s calls for more multilateral and bilateral trade agreements with the Indo-Pacific.
The Senator’s visit began in Vientiane, Laos, on July 15 — the first visit from a United States Senator to the country since 2010. The Senator met various Lao government leaders and Chantale Wong, US Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Senator Duckworth also visited the American Center in Vientiane, a public educational space run by the US Embassy.
These meetings aimed at strengthening regional security, a priority for the Senator. Senator Duckworth has called for “a longer, a bigger, and more persistent presence [...] all across the Indo-Pacific region” with respect to military presence and economic visibility to counter increasing Chinese influence across Southeast Asia, particularly in Laos. The Senator’s meeting with ADB also reflected the United States’ ongoing focus on sustainable economic development in Laos. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), together with the ADB, launched the Frontier's Inaugural Seed Fund in May, a project which provides funding and technical assistance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Laos to support the country’s National Socio-Economic Development Plan in the areas of SME development and green growth.
Senator Duckworth then traveled to Vietnam, where she met with governmental and business leaders to promote US-Vietnam bilateral relations on numerous issues. Senator Duckworth specifically emphasized that Illinois is a leader in biofuel production, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and agriculture. In her meetings with Vietnamese government trade officials, she highlighted the benefits of increasing imports of corn and soy ethanol from Illinois to Vietnam.
Senator Duckworth then met with National Assembly Vice Chairman Trần Quang Phương on July 17 to discuss potential US-Vietnam cooperation in manufacturing, green technology, climate impacts, US investment in Vietnam, and defense and security. The Senator highlighted several bills recently passed by Congress aimed at international cooperation on manufacturing, particularly in the production of electric transformers, solar panel equipment, and "super-chip" circuit boards. Senator Duckworth and Vice Chairman Phương also discussed the potential for cooperation between university-level research on green technology, renewable energy and innovation, as well as knowledge-sharing between the Mekong and Mississippi rivers focused on riverbank erosion control, efficient river management, and management of inland waterway operations.
The following day, Senator Duckworth met with Vietnam’s Deputy Defense Minister, Senior Lieutenant General Hoàng Xuân Chiến, to discuss cooperation under the upgraded US-Vietnam bilateral relationship. The Senator committed to promoting bilateral cooperation on defense relations, war legacy settlement, search for missing US servicemen, unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance, and sustainable development, among other issues under the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, signed in September 2023.
Senator Duckworth has traveled on numerous occasions to the Indo-Pacific, including visits to Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan in the past two years. The Senator has promoted relations and expanded economic partnerships between Illinois and the Indo-Pacific. Her focus on the region partially draws from her heritage as a Thai American, born in Bangkok and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. While traveling to Thailand in 2019, Senator Duckworth said, “My Thai heritage is very important to my performance as a public servant. Because my international background helps me have a greater appreciation of America's role in the world.”
Furthermore, Sen. Duckworth's trip demonstrates the growing interests of the legislative branch in the Indo-Pacific region. Bilateral relationships between the US with Vietnam and Laos are also particularly crucial given ASEAN’s status as an important trade partner and rapid growth in its internet market and digital economy.
Alana Ballagh is a Summer 2024 Young Professional at the East-West Center in Washington. She is an incoming M.S. student in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia.