Japan's Foreign Minister Visits Timor-Leste
Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono visited Timor-Leste on October 12, 2018, on what was the first visit of a Japanese Minister to the country since independence.
During his visit to the country, Taro Kono held meetings with the President of the Republic, Francisco Guterres Lú Olo, with the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, and the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Agio Pereira, with the objective to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.
The Foreign Ministers of Timor-Leste and Japan signed an agreement to strengthen national human resources through the JDS (Japan Development Scholarships) program, a Japanese cooperation program initiated in 1999, already implemented in 15 countries, which willallow Timorese civil servants to study at Japanese universities. Agio Pereira stressed the importance of this program, "not only in the academic perspective, but also in the perspective of the development of character and discipline."
The Japanese Minister also participated in the official inauguration ceremony of the third bridge over the Comoro River, Hinode-Bashi (Sunrise Bridge in Japanese), whose design and construction were donated by the Government of Japan, costing about 26 million dollars Americans.
Taro Kono said that "Japan and Timor-Leste are important partners that share basic values" and that he aims to "revitalize relations between the two countries and raise them to a new level", "especially in four areas of cooperation: resource development human, economy, maritime sector and regional cooperation".
Agio Pereira expressed on behalf of Timor-Leste "the sincere thanks to the Government and people of Japan for their friendship and for the support they have kindly extended to Timor-Leste through the good work of JICA, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, in the development, training of human resources, creation of scholarships for East Timorese, training of defense personnel and journalists, health and sanitation, agriculture and rural development, as well as projects for the maintenance and improvement of key infrastructures of Timor-Leste".
