Laos profile – timeline – BBC News

2008 May – Some 69% of children in Laos lack basic health care, Save the Children charity reports.

2009 March – Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn opens a rail connection over the Mekong river, linking Thailand and Laos.

2009 December – Thailand forcibly repatriates more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum seekers back to Laos.

2010 December – PM Bouasone Bouphavanh resigns, citing “family problems”, and is replaced by National Assembly president Thongsing Thammavong. Analysts say factional disputes within the ruling party are the likely reason.

2011 January – New stock market opens in Vientiane as part of tentative experiment with capitalism.

Former Laos royal general and leader of Hmong ethnic group Vang Pao dies in exile in US, aged 81.

2011 June – President Choummaly is given a further five-year term by parliament.

2012 July – Hillary Clinton becomes the first US secretary of state to visit Laos for 57 years. The legacy of the Vietnam War and a controversial dam project are on her agenda.

2012 November – Laos approves plans to build a massive dam at Xayaburi, on the lower Mekong river, despite opposition from environmentalists and neighbours Cambodia and Vietnam.

2013 August – European parliamentarians draw attention to the disappearance of activist Sombath Somphone, last seen at a police checkpoint.

2014 May – Several senior officials are killed in a plane crash in northern Laos, including Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Douangchay Phichit, Security Minister Thongbanh Sengaphone and Vientiane Mayor Soukanh Mahalath.

2016 April – National Assembly at its five-year congress appoints Bounnhang Vorachit as president and leader of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), succeeding Choummaly Sayasone.

2016 September – President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting US president to visit Laos.

US commits 90 million US dollars over three years to help clear unexploded bombs the US dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.

2017 September – Conservationists warn that Laos has become the fastest growing ivory market in the world, undermining the international effort to stop the illegal trade.