Portugal and East Timor sign cooperation programme for 75 million euros

The Prime Ministers of Portugal and East Timor Luís Montenegro and Xanana Gusmão, as well as several members of both Governments met in Lisbon. Luís Montenegro said the meeting’s outcome was "signing agreements that mean Portugal will engage in a cooperation plan with East Timor for the next four years to an amount of 75 million euros, five million more than the previous framework to assist Eat Timor with building a new, modern, efficient State, with all this represents in terms of the service offered to people".

At the press conference with the East Timorese Head of Government after signing the three agreements at the Prime Minister’s residence, Luís Montenegro noted that the strategic cooperation plan "is focused on education, the central pillar in our cooperation, and within it teaching Portuguese language, boosting learning centres, and building a new Portuguese school in Dili because the current one has outrun its capacity".

Luís Montenegro also noted another structural area for East Timor’s development included in the strategic cooperation plan - justice. And he noted the agreements for the economy’s diversification and enhancing the tourism sector, and in the field of infrastructure "so that East Timor can stake its claim in the regional and global context".

Gateway

Claiming that the cooperation between both countries has a bilateral and a multilateral dimension, starting with the community of Portuguese-speaking countries and other international organisations, among which the United Nations, he congratulated Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão "for having concluded the membership of the International Trade Organization" and "for being on the right track" to join "the Association of South East Asian Nations, of which it is already an observer.

This membership "will set up the possibility for Portugal to make the most of its relationship with East Timor as a gateway" to the countries in the organisation, around 750 million people. And Portugal will continue to be "East Timor’s gateway to Europe". 

Portugal is the only European Union country with an Embassy in Dili, that offers services to several EU countries. And our diplomatic and consular network is available to serve the Timorese Government’s, institutions’ and companies’ interests, Luís Montenegro said.

Sibling countries

The Prime Minister highlighted that "Portugal and East Timor are sibling countries and they are both countries committed to the values of democracy, human rights, peace, and valuing people", adding that both countries "have an unbreakable relationship of friendship, solidarity, and cooperation."

Luís Montenegro stressed Xanana Gusmão’s role in the fight by the Timorese people against the Indonesian occupation, recalling "the images that we will never Forget of the Santa Cruz massacre, which we felt in Portugal as if we were there, as if it were here".

He also remarked that this year, we celebrate 50 years of the 25 April revolution and 25 years of the East Timor Independence referendum, two dates "linked by the same spirit that guides this deep, historical, cultural, economic, and political relationship." 

He thanked the East Timorese people’s generosity with the last tragedies that hit Portugal, the fire in Madeira, "where East Timor offered financial assistance of 2.5 million dollars", and the wildfires, where the country stated its willingness to help us2.

Proof of care

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão said that signing these agreements "is further proof of the care and solidarity that unites both peoples", underlining his Government’s commitment to working towards the Timorese people’s well-being and State consolidation.

Xanana Gusmão likewise claimed that "without the commitment, effort, care, and solidarity of the Portuguese people, we would not have been able to achieve the referendum that led to our Independence".

Agreements

Under Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão’s official visit, the following were signed:

• The 2024-28 Strategic Cooperation Programme signed by the Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel and the East Timorese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Bendito Freitas

• The cooperation agreement in the field of infrastructure, signed by both Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the East Timorese Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment Gastão de Sousa, and

• The cooperation agreement to develop the Revive programme, signed by the Minister of Economy Pedro Reis, and the East Timorese Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Coordinator of Economic Affairs, and Minister of Tourism and Environment, Francisco Lay.