 Burma, Cambodia, Canada, the People's Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, France, India, Poland, the Republic of Vietnam, Thailand, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed a Declaration which together with the statement of neutrality by the Royal Government of Laos of July 9, 1962, entered into force as an international agreement on the date of signature July 23, 1962.After a brief occupation by the Japanese at the end of World War II, which followed in a declaration of independence by Lao nationalists, the French reoccupied Laos and the rest of French Indochina, which included Vietnam and Cambodia.In the following insurgency, the Indochinese Communist formed the Pathet Lao, a Laotian nationalist movement, ally of the Vietnamese in the struggle against France.