Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in New York for the Meeting of GB - ICG and of the United Nations Security Council
The Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Luís Guterres, travelled to New York, on November 13th, 2014, for the Guinea Bissau International Contact Group Meeting (GB-ICG) and the United Nations Security Council Meetings. These meetings take place on November 18th.
“I am going to New York to participate in a Security Council meeting on Guinea Bissau, and as Timor-Leste holds the rotating presidency of the CPLP, I will speak on behalf of that organization. Afterwards, there is still a meeting of the Guinea Bissau International Contact Group, counting on the participation of several countries, to discuss the international community’s support to that country”, informed the Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste.
The GB-ICG is co-chaired by Ghana and by Timor-Leste. This Group appeared following consultations held, in 2006, between CPLP, the Economic Community of West African States and Portugal, and was formalized in September of the same year, in New York, in meetings held alongside the United Nations General Assembly.
Parties of the GB-ICG are: Guinea Bissau, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Spain, France, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Niger, Nigeria, Portugal, Senegal, African Union, European Union, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, ECOWAS, the West African Economic and Monetary Union, CPLP and UN.
The GB-ICG’s main objective is to help the country in the reinforcement processes of national institutions, and the restructuring of the security, defence, judiciary, public administration and economic sectors.
The Minister José Luís Guterres added that this visit to New York also aims to continue the campaign of the Timorese judge Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira, Timor-Leste candidate for the position on the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Holland. The election is scheduled for December 8th, day on which the 122 States that signed the Rome Statute will vote.
During this trip to New York, the Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste showed his concern about the news on the judges’ situation in his country.
“I want to take this opportunity to make it perfectly clear to the international community that Timor-Leste is a democratic country and that people live in a free environment. We respect democracy and the other institutions. There isn’t any sort of personal or political persecution. Therefore, I can say that international aid workers currently in the country can count on the willingness of the Government of Timor-Leste to continue cooperating towards the development of our institutions”, stated José Luís Guterres.
