Government of Timor-Leste

The Vice-Minister for ASEAN Affairs, Milena Rangel, accompanied the President of the Republic, José Ramos-Horta, to the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum 2025, held in Davos, Switzerland, from January 20^th to 24^th. This event brought together global leaders to debate international and regional challenges, under the theme “Collaboration for the Smart Age”, emphasizing the importance of multilateral cooperation and technological innovation. 

Throughout the event, the Vice-Minister accompanied the President to high-level sessions, bilateral meetings and diplomatic engagements, including the session “Navigating Asia's Critical Points”, where President Ramos-Horta, as a speaker, shared perspectives on regional security and strategies to prevent conflict escalation in the Asia-Pacific, in a context of changing power dynamics and divergent interests. 

The Vice-Minister accompanied the Head of State to important bilateral meetings that strengthened Timor-Leste's co-operation with strategic partners:

●      Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to discuss the Tony Blair Institute's support for institutional strengthening in Timor-Leste.

●      Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary General of ASEAN, addressing Timor-Leste's progress towards full membership of the organization and his vision for ASEAN 2045.

●      Julie Bishop, UN Special Representative for Myanmar, to coordinate efforts to resolve the crisis in the country. 

●      Paulo Rangel, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Portugal, and Maria Graça Carvalho, Minister of Environment and Energy of Portugal, to strengthen diplomatic and environmental co-operation between Timor-Leste and Portugal.

 : Other bilateral meetings included:

●      Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, General Director of the WTO, to discuss Timor-Leste's national policies aligning with the organization’s standards. 

●      Amy Pope, General Director of the IOM, to address global challenges in managing migratory flows.

●      Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, to explore opportunities for bilateral co-operation. 

●      Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia, within the collaboration framework in the g7+.

 : In addition to bilateral meetings, the Vice-Minister took part in highly relevant thematic sessions:

●      Latin America's Economic Perspectives, which explored ways of leveraging natural resources, human capital and technology to promote productivity and social development.

●      ASEAN: Together We Are Even Stronger, which emphasized valuing diversity and collaboration to consolidate ASEAN as the third largest global population bloc; 

●       Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which analyzed the benefits and risks associated with AGI, such as job losses, surveillance and the challenges of “deepfakes”.