On 2 December 1975, after taking control of the country, the Pathet Lao government under Kaysone Phomvihane renamed the country as the Lao People's Democratic Republic and signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country. The close ties between Laos and Vietnam were formalised via a treaty signed in 1977, which has since provided direction for Lao foreign policy, and provides the basis for Vietnamese involvement at all levels of Lao political and economic life.Stuart-Fox, Martin (1980). LAOS: The Vietnamese Connection . In Suryadinata, L (Ed.), Southeast Asian Affairs (1980). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Stuides, pg. 191. Laos was requested in 1979 by Vietnam to end relations with the People's Republic of China, leading to isolation in trade by China, the United States, and other countries.Kingsbury, Damien (2016). Politics in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Authority, Democracy and Political Change . Taylor & Francis;, pg. 50. In 1979, there were 50,000 PAVN troops stationed in Laos and as many as 6,000 civilian Vietnamese officials including 1,000 directly attached to the ministries in Vientiane.Savada, Andrea M. (1995). Laos: a country study . Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, p. 271. Prayaga, M. (2005). Renovation in Vietnam since 1988 a study in political, economic and social change (PhD thesis). Sri Venkateswara University. Chapter IV: The Metamorphosed Foreign Relations, pg. 154.
