In historic visit, Clinton reaches out to Laos

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. AP/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool

VIENTIANE, Laos — Hillary Rodham Clinton is making a historic visit to Laos, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in more than five decades.

Clinton arrived in the country Wednesday as part of a week of diplomacy aimed at bolstering America’s standing in Asia.

The Obama administration has been trying to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward Asia’s booming markets after more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Clinton is meeting with the communist government’s prime minister and foreign minister. They will discuss commercial opportunities and joint efforts to clean up the tens of millions of unexploded bombs the U.S. dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war.