Is China's ‘economic slave' sending troops to Ukraine to support Russia? Not Pakistan or Sri Lanka, it is....
According to the South China Morning Post(SCMP), Laos state media reported this week that the government rejected recent reports in international media that it would send troops to support Russian military operations in Ukraine. The reports claimed that Moscow was trying to recruit Laotian soldiers and civilians with the promise of financial incentives and Russian citizenship. Reports also claimed that Russia identified Laotian military engineering units to offer support, i.e., mine-clearing support in the Kursk region at the outset.
The reports, citing Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, stated that the Kremlin aims to involve allied states in the war under the 'under the pretext of carrying out humanitarian projects in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.' 'Laos is the latest country Russia is attempting to pull into the war,' the agency noted. Which major country provides economic and diplomatic support to Russia without condemning its actions?
With the country's strong ties with Moscow and demining expertise, concerns about the Southeast Asian nation playing a role in the conflict seemed reasonable. Laos said the allegations were baseless and were intended to confuse and damage the country's international reputation. Laos stressed there was no evidence to support the allegations, characterising them as a 'deliberate distortion of the truth' to create confusion in the world community.
The Thongloun Sisoulith government also announced that it has no policy or intention to dispatch military personnel or citizens to intervene in any other countries' internal conflicts, the report mentioned.
According to Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, these claims originated from Ukraine's military intelligence, which has 'a track record of false or exaggerated claims'.
'However, the story was somewhat plausible given the good relations between Laos and Russia,' Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute based in Singapore, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
The two nations' close historical ties began in the Cold War situation, with the Soviet Union supplying essential support to the Laotian Communist Party. Ian Storey, author of Putin's Russia and Southeast Asia: The Kremlin's Pivot to Asia and the Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War, notes that Vientiane is thankful to Moscow and has not condemned Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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