India, Laos find an Epic connect — Ramayana
India and Laos today signed agreements in the field of defence, customs cooperation, preservation of heritage and culture, including protecting the centuries-old Laos version of the epic Ramayana and restoration of a Buddhist temple.
The agreements were signed after bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Laos counterpart Sonexay Siphandone in Vientiane Laos on Friday.
The Ministry of External Affairs said, "Following the talks, MoUs and agreement in the fields of defence, broadcasting, customs cooperation, and three Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) under the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation were exchanged in the presence of the two leaders."
The QIPs relate to preservation of heritage of Lao Ramayana — a version of the Ramayana — restoration of Wat Pakea Buddhist temple with murals related to Ramayana, and support to shadow puppetry theatre on Ramayana in Champasak province in Laos.
All three QIPs have a Government of India grant of $50,000 each.
The two leaders noted that the ongoing restoration and conservation of Vat Phou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, under assistance by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), imparted a special dimension to the bilateral ties.
India will also provide a grant of about $1 million to improve nutrition security in Laos. This assistance through the India UN Development Partnership Fund will be the fund’s first such project in Southeast Asia.
The Prime Ministers held productive talks on further strengthening India-Laos civilisational and contemporary ties and discussed various areas of bilateral cooperation, such as development partnership, capacity building, disaster management, renewable energy, heritage restoration, economic ties, defence collaboration, and people-to-people ties.
Prime Minister Siphandone thanked Prime Minister Modi for India’s flood-relief assistance provided to Laos in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi last month.
