Obama’s visit to Laos will be a first

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Laos next month marks a new chapter in a complicated relationship previously marked by covert wars, political enmities and refugees that have changed the complexion of California’s Central Valley.

Formally announced Thursday by the White House, Obama’s early September visit will be the first by a U.S. president to the country formally known as the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the still-communist country, he’ll be touting free markets alongside Asian leaders.

“The president will discuss ways to strengthen our economic cooperation with the countries of Southeast Asia, which collectively represent America’s fourth-largest trading partner, and further enhance our collaboration on regional and global challenges,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.

Obama’s appearances at the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the related East Asia Summit, which are scheduled for Sept. 6-8 in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, will follow a stop in China and conclude his 11th visit to Asia since 2009.

It will shed light, as well, on a landlocked country that’s at times played an outsized role in U.S. foreign policy.

“We’ve seen a lot of very positive changes,” Doug Hartwick, a former U.S. ambassador to Laos, said in an interview Thursday, adding that “this basically normalizes a relationship that increasingly has been on a stronger footing.”

California, in particular, has been tied to Laos since the end of the Vietnam War, when refugees found new homes in cities such as Fresno and Merced.