Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network
The Sydney Morning Herald has published an excellent feature article by Jock Cheetham on Australian volunteers in Timor-Leste.
The article includes an interview with AusTimorFN Facilitator and Friends of Maliana Co-chair Máire Sheehan, as well as comments from Ambassador Abel Guterres. It also touches on some of the troubled history of Timor-Leste, and its relationship with Australia.
It’s a great article, which you can read at the Sydney Morning Herald website.
The Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network congratulates Timor-Leste on the inauguration of its new embassy in Canberra. Timor-Leste’s President Jose Ramos-Horta told guests to the inauguration ceremony that the embassy being built with Australian public support was a world first in friendship between countries. President Ramos-Horta was visiting Australia on a state visit.
The opening of the Timor-Leste Embassy followed an official lunch at Parliament House to welcome President Ramos-Horta, AusTimorFN was represented at the lunch and embassy inauguration by Convener Rae Kingsbury and NSW Facilitator Maire Sheehan. Andy Alcock from the Australia East Timor Friendship Association (SA) and several members from the Canberra Friends of Dili also attended, along with numerous ambassadors, government officials and other dignitaries.
President Ramos-Horta’s concluded his visit to Canberra with a formal dinner at Government House hosted by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce, which Rae also attended along with co-founder of the Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network and now Timor-Leste Ambassador to Australia Abel Guterres. President Ramos-Horta took the occasion of the dinner to reflect on the strength and depth of the friendship between Timor-Leste and Australia.
Following celebrations for Timor-Leste in Canberra, Rae met in Darwin with AusTimorFN Northern Territory Facilitator Lynn Bigg. Rae then travelled to Timor-Leste to finalise arrangements with the Ministry of State Administration for the Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Workshop to be held in Maubisse on 27th and 28th August.
Rae Kingsbury,
Convener Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network, AusTimorFN
The Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network (AusTimorFN) has welcomed His Excellency Abel Guterres following his appointment as the new Timor-Leste Ambassador to Australia. Former Australian resident and long-time Timor-Leste activist, H.E. Guterres was welcomed at a dinner hosted by the AusTimorFN at the Zen Yai restaurant in Canberra on Tuesday 1 June.
AusTimorFN convenor Rae Kingsbury opened the dinner by saying she was very pleased to welcome back her good friend H.E. Guterres. She said it was especially pleasing to see him return to Australia in his new and well deserved role.
Ms Kingsbury and H.E. Guterres together founded the Australia Timor-Leste Friendship groups in 2000. The Friendship groups network now spans more than 50 relationships between local communities in Australia and Timor-Leste. Building on a decade of cooperation, a number of Friendship groups are now planning their next 10 years of cooperative community development.
Speaking to the dinner, Professor Damien Kingsbury noted that all present had a strong friendship with H.E. Guterres. He said that friendship between Australia and Timor-Leste was at the core of the bilateral relationship. He noted that the real strength of the friendship lay in the bonding between the communities of both countries, especially since Timor-Leste voted for independence in 1999.
Professor Kingsbury said that despite occasional ups and downs in the relationship, its enduring friendship would continue to underwrite a long-term positive relationship between the governments of the two countries and especially between the people of the two countries.
In his reply, H.E. Guterres thanked AusTimorFN for hosting the dinner and welcoming him back to Australia. He said that friendship between Australia and Timor-Leste was critical to the future of both countries, and that the community to community relationships continued to give real substance to the more formal diplomatic relationship.
H.E. Guterres also warmly welcomed Timor-Leste’s other friends to the dinner, including the Portuguese Ambassador, H.E. Rui Quartin-Santos and his wife Snr Ana Carlota Meirelles do Canto e Castro, the Brazilian Ambassador H.E. Fernando de Mello Barreto, the Philippines Ambassador, H.E. Ernesto H de Leon, and the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s senior foreign policy advisor, Philip Green.
In particular, H.E. Guterres noted the long-standing contribution of H.E. Quartin-Santos to Timor-Leste, since 1976 working with President Jose Ramos-Horta during his long years of exile.
He also noted the invaluable contributions of lawyer Bernard Collaery, who during the occupation advocated on behalf of Timor-Leste and was legal advisor to the CNRT in the critical period up until formal independence in 2002.
Also acknowledged by H.E. Guterres for their friendship to Timor-Leste were former advisor to then Foreign Minister and later Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, Janelle Saffin, MP, Senator Julian McGauran, who was a notable supporter of Timor-Leste at a time when his own party position was in favour of Indonesian occupation, and Australian Capital Territory Deputy Chief Minister, Ms Pam Davoren, Timor-Leste Charge d’Affaires Jorge Camoes, Dr George and Barbara Preston and other guests.
H.E. Guterres said he would convene a further dinner of friends of Timor-Leste in 12 months’ time and until then that he looked forward to working closely with his and Timor-Leste’s friends.
Rae Merlyn Kingsbury, AusTimorFN national convenor.
email: raemerlynperry@gmail.com
mobile: (+61) 0448 946 483
day time ph: 03 94806210
Dear Friends
Earlier this week, on 18th May 2010, Sr Abel Guterres presented his credentials as Ambassador to the Australian Governor General in Canberra.
Sr Abel Guterres has worked for many years to serve the people and land of Timor-Leste.
As his friends in Australia we wish him every success for him, and his country, in his new role as the Timorese Ambassador to Australia.
Warmest friendship
Rae
The President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, has announced Abel Guterres as the new Ambassador of Timor-Leste to Australia, in what he described as “one of the most important diplomatic posts” for the country.
At the inauguration ceremony, President Ramos-Horta stressed the importance of Timor-Leste’s relationship with Australia, saying that there is “no country more important to the vital national interests” of Timor-Leste. He described Australia as “by far our largest bilateral development partner”.
Ambassador Abel Guterres (left) and President José Ramos-Horta
Ambassador Guterres has previously held the role of Consul General for Timor-Leste in Sydney from 2002 to 2008, after having resided in Australia between 1975 and 1999.
In 1999, as a representative of the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), Mr Guterres inspired the creation of the Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network in discussion with Rae Kingsbury (then Cr Rae Perry) to address the issue: “How communities in Australia could support good development of communities in Timor-Leste.”
Ambassador Abel Guterres (left) and President José Ramos-Horta
Ambassador Guterres has worked with energy and commitment to improve the wellbeing, safety and prosperity of the peoples of Timor-Leste and achieve a better future for the country.
As his friends in Australia, we hope that you will join with us in warmly congratulating Ambassador Guterres on this announcement. We look forward to continuing to work with him.
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