Environment Minister Suchart Visits Laos to Strengthen Cross-Border Haze and PM2.5 Cooperation
Thailand's environment minister visited Laos to strengthen cross-border cooperation on haze and air quality under a trilateral strategy with Myanmar, focusing on joint action plans and wildfire monitoring through 2030.
At 9:30 AM on April 29, 2026, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suchart Chomklin, accompanied by Deputy Permanent Secretary Raveevan Puridech, Thai Ambassador to Vientiane Khrongkhnit Raksjaroen, and other officials, visited the Lao PDR to discuss transboundary haze management and sustainable natural resource management with Lao Agriculture and Environment Minister Linkham Doungsavanh.
The discussions focused on strengthening cooperation under the Clear Sky Strategy, a trilateral framework involving Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. Both sides emphasized implementing a joint action plan to prevent and resolve transboundary haze problems from 2024-2030, targeting four concrete outcomes: developing Laos's air quality reporting platform, establishing a national air quality data center, utilizing the WhatsApp Hotline CLEAR Sky for senior officials to monitor wildfire smoke and PM2.5 levels, and coordinating rapid response during burning seasons.
Additional initiatives include developing joint risk maps, strengthening the trilateral forest fire prevention and suppression network, promoting GAP Zero Burning practices, and implementing traceability systems for agricultural products, particularly animal feed corn, to ensure products are not linked to agricultural burning.
The minister also proposed a new Memorandum of Understanding on natural resources and environmental management between the two countries to align with current situations and Laos's new organizational structure.
This visit represents a significant step in elevating regional environmental cooperation, reflecting Thailand's proactive role in systematically addressing transboundary haze issues through neighbor cooperation while building technical, technological, and management capacity for sustainable development in the region.
