A steady improvement has been maintained since then. Relations with Thailand and with the West have followed a similar pattern. Since 1988, there has been greatly expanded commercial contact between Thailand and Laos and the political relationship has improved. The dominant political figures in Laos since independence have been the veteran General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (the LPRP, whose armed wing is the Pathet Lao), Kaysone Phomvihane, and Prince Souphanouvong (the 'Red Prince'). The activities of the country's main opposition movements, the right-wing pro-royalist United Lao National Liberation Front and the United Front for the National Liberation of the Lao People, have been confined to minor armed rebellions from bases among the northern hill tribes (the cause of a series of minor bomb attacks in Vientiane during 2000 has yet to be discovered).