Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation holds bilateral meetings at the ASEAN Forum and participates in Southwest Pacific Dialogue
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Hernâni Coelho, had bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Malaysia and Thailand, at the Twenty-SecondASEAN Regional Forum, which took place between August 4th and August 6th, in Malaysia.
At the bilateral meeting between Timor-Leste and Malaysia, subjects related to cooperation, regional policy and activities related to the Presidency of CPLP were discussed. The arrangements for the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on September, in New York were also dealt.
“On this bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Malaysia, we spoke about cooperation across several areas, for example, economy, defence, security, culture and social issues. We also focused on the future development of human resources, investments and trade. We have debated the issue about the aspiration for Timor-Leste to enter ASEAN. We also presented what Timor-Leste has done so far, what we intend to do and how we propose to contribute, in case there is, soon, a decision making Timor-Leste a member of ASEAN. We have updated information about activities related to CPLP and to the participation of Timor-Leste on the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, next September”, stated Hernâni Coelho.
The Minister still referred that Malaysia has reiterated the intention to continue the cooperation with Timor-Leste in thediscussed areas, particularly on the training of human resources and cooperation in major investments.
“Malaysia reaffirmed its position to support the accession of Timor-Leste to ASEAN. The authorities reaffirmed that they will always be next to this young nation, within the accession process and after joining the community of South-East Asian countries”, stressed Minister Hernâni Coelho.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation also had a bilateral meeting with his counterpart from Thailand, in which they discussed the existing cooperation between the two countries, the accession process of Timor-Leste to ASEAN and the activities they will perform in the coming months.
"Thailand is a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. We presented our perspective on the reform and missions of the Security Council. We also discussed the issue of the Timor Sea and cooperation in agriculture, education and environment, among others. We agreed to soon hold a meeting, at technical and ministerial levels, on the framework for cooperation between Timor-Leste and Thailand for the next five years. We hope that, still during this year, our technicians begin preparing the framework for the cooperation of Timor-Leste, in the short, medium and long terms. Thailand reiterated its full support to this young country's accession to ASEAN, by offering to accompany our country in terms of bilateral cooperation on matters related to our intervention and activity at the regional and national levels," said Minister Hernâni Coelho.
In order to strengthen the cooperation between Timor-Leste and Thailand, the Minister invited his Thai counterpart to visit Timor-Leste, having also received an invitation to visit Thailand.
In Malaysia, Hernâni Coelho had the opportunity to speak about the political and economic situation, as well as the strategic vision of Timor-Leste, to the Malay community and to other nations such as China, Vietnam and Thailand, through an interview to TV and radio channels, such as Bernama [Malaysian official radio], RTM [group of radio and television channels from Malaysia], TV3, CUTV (Shenzhen Media Group, from China) and radio Durian Asean [on-line broadcasting on ASEAN activities].
After these bilateral meetings, Minister Hernâni Coelho continued to attend the meeting of the Southwest Pacific Dialogue.
It is a 6 Nations’ forum for dialogue, namely: Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Timor-Leste. It is aimed at exchanging information on various issues of interest to this region. This year, it is led by Papua New Guinea.
"At the meeting of the Southwest Pacific Dialogue, we dealt with three important aspects for national development and regional cooperation regarding environmental protection. First, we deepened the issues of illegal fishing and transnational crimes that use the sea as a means for their activities. Secondly, we discussed maritime safety, particularly the ones related to transnational crimes – for example, illegal immigration and other illegal maritime activities in the areas that we share – and the maritime cooperation program that Australia has established, named Pacific Patrol Boat Program. Australia has suggested us this program, but we still have to analyse our future participation", said Hernâni Coelho.
He also stressed that, during this forum, Timor-Leste and Indonesia were given the task of dealing with the connectivity issues in the region.
"The Southwest Pacific countries extend geographically to the South China Sea, the Philippines and India. It is a very wide area. So we have to address the connectivity issues on aspects of navigation, air transport, shipping, communications and optic fibre corridor. Apart from that, we also discussed connectivity in the institutional aspect, in order to anticipate threats and emergencies that may arise. Finally, we discuss the connectivity of people, the cooperation in our region of non-governmental groups, individuals and the private sector", referred the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.
