POW/MIA talks end in Bangkok

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The four nations involved in accounting for Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War ended a meeting in Bangkok on Oct. 24.

The senior-level talks were held by officials from the United States, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. They exchanged ideas, experiences and techniques that have been productive in accounting for missing Americans, and set a vision for future work in this area.

The meeting represented the first time all four nations have joined together in such talks since the war ended in 1975. U.S. officials work with each of the countries individually as specialists investigate MIA cases and excavate sites to try to recover and identify the remains of missing Americans.

Since the war ended, U.S. officials have accounted for more than 700 Americans from the Vietnam War, with more than 1,800 still unaccounted for. More than 88,000 are still missing from all conflicts.

The United States will continue its bilateral relationships in this work, said Jerry Jennings, deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/Missing personnel affairs. He expressed his appreciation to the delegation, on behalf of American families, for their country’s cooperation in the past. Each year, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam host more than 700 American specialists who review archives or conduct investigations and recovery operations.

At the end of the two-day session, the delegates said they agreed that such talks were a useful forum for improving joint cooperation on this humanitarian mission. They also agreed to hold such consultations annually and to rotate where the venues are held. This forum would be known as the Annual POW/MIA Consultations.

The delegates expressed hope that sharing POW/MIA-related information among the four nations could be useful as they seek to investigate cases through archival research and cross-border interviews. They also said the exchange of information should be continued.