Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Bendito dos Santos Freitas, and President of Camões, Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, IP, Ana Paula Fernandes, convened this Wednesday to commence negotiations on the Strategic Cooperation Plan (PEC – acronym in Portuguese) between Timor-Leste and Portugal for the period 2024-2028. 

During this collaborative meeting, both sides engaged in a fruitful discussion on the strategic priority areas for bilateral cooperation under the new PEC, emphasizing the importance of extending ongoing cooperation projects and including new action areas.

This preparatory meeting precedes the Camões Mission’s individual meetings with each Ministry, in which the sectoral political discussions will be deepened. 

The President of Camões IP also presented the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the RDTL with the statistical data relating to the PEC 2019-2023, sharing the conclusions and recommendations of the respective Evaluation Report. 

 The Portuguese Ambassador in Dili, Manuela Bairos, the Vice-President of Camões, Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, IP, Ricardo Vitória, the Attaché for Cooperation at the Portuguese Embassy in Dili, Cristina Faustino, and their respective technical teams for negotiating the PEC were also present at the meeting.