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Press Release
Dili, 19 of September of 2019
Timor-Leste’s Participation in UN General Assembly
On 27 September 2002, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste was unanimously admitted as the 191st member of the United Nations. Since then, the State is required to be represented at the United Nations General Assemblies, held annually at the Headquarters in New York.
In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Dionísio Babo Soares, Ph.D., travels today, September 19 to New York, in order to participate in the 74th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, to be held between the 23rd and the 30th of September.
On the sidelines of the General Assembly, the head of Timorese diplomacy will hold various multilateral, trilateral and bilateral meetings.
The expected agenda during the High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly focuses on (1) the Climate Change Summit, convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres; (2) the Universal Health Access Program; (3) the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF); and (4) the High-level dialogue on development financing (FfD), as well as a high-level meeting on the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The Minister will also participate in the high-level meeting to analyse the progress made in addressing the priorities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) by applying the early action program SAMOA Pathway at the national and regional level, from which will result “a summary political declaration, action oriented and intergovernmental agreed”.
Under the agenda, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Dionísio Babo Soares, will intervene in the plenary session of the general debate in the presence of the Heads of State and Government, led by the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations, H.E. Tijani Mohammad Bande.
The Minister will participate in ministerial-level meetings, within the G7 + organization, the G77 and China group, the Non-Aligned Countries Movement (NAM), the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) and the “least advanced countries” (LDC’s) group.
At the invitation of his counterpart, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya, the Minister participates as a speaker at the high-level “side event” under the theme ”Peace and Political transition”.
The agenda includes meetings with the representatives of the (1) Republic of Ireland, (2) the Democratic Republic of Georgia, (3) the Republic of Kosovo, (4) the Republic of Malta, (5) the United States of America and (6) Front Polisario, through the institution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
On a trilateral level, a joint meeting is foreseen with the representatives of the Republic of Indonesia and the Commonwealth of Australia.
In compliance with Timor-Leste’s foreign policy strategy ”making friends and zero enemies”, we will observe the establishment of new diplomatic relations with several countries, considered in the form of “Joint communiqués”.
The high-level activities foreseen in the framework of the 74th General Assembly of the United Nations will end on 30 September 2019, and it is expected the Minister will travel to Republic of Cuba, in reciprocity to the official visit of a delegation from the Republic of Cuba to Timor-Leste, at the end of last year.