Exclusive | ‘I don’t care about the big power rivalries,’ East Timor leader Ramos-Horta says

Island nation’s president dismisses concerns over military cooperation with China and says his priority for help is development sectors

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East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta (left) with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. Photo: AP

Published: 9:00am, 1 Aug 2024

East Timor is not caught up in the rivalry between China and the United States and it will not take a side, President Jose Ramos-Horta said.

In an exclusive interview, he said Dili had “exceptionally good” relations with both powers “as we do with Australia, with Indonesia, with India, and so on”.

Ramos-Horta also dismissed concerns over military cooperation between China and East Timor, also known as Timor Leste.

“The irony is the country with a military presence in Timor Leste is not China, it is Australia, the United States and Portugal – three Western countries,” the 74-year-old Nobel laureate said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a state visit to Beijing.

After upgrading diplomatic ties in September, China and East Timor have agreed to step up cooperation on everything from infrastructure, agriculture and trade to reducing poverty, according to a joint statement released after Ramos-Horta met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday.

The two sides also pledged to “closely interact at all levels in the military and police departments and to strengthen cooperation in such areas as personnel training, equipment and technology, joint exercises and training, police and law enforcement security”.