MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2018) Laotian Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath thanked the Russian military for helping the country clear out remaining unexploded US bombs left over from the Vietnam War.
"I believe that your arrival and carrying out humanitarian demining tasks in Laos is an important sign and contribution to the development of cooperation between our countries, especially in the military area, and will strengthen our relations, which were [developing] during the Soviet Union and are developing now," Chanyalath was quoted as saying by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian sappers have cleared BLU-26, BLU-63, and BLU-3B cluster bombs from over 21 hectares of the territory, according to the statement.
The 36-person Russian squad has been working in Laos since mid-October.
The mission is set to last until March 2019. Its focus is clearing myriads of hard-to-find US bombs that pose a threat to local residents from the Laotian jungle, according to the Russian military.
The United States dropped some 260 million bombs on Laos between 1964 and 1973, according to experts.
