Summit Meeting between Prime Minister Noda and H.E. Dr. José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

On Thursday, January 19, Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan, held a summit meeting with H.E. Dr. José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste at the Prime Minister's Office. An outline of the meeting is as follows. Attending on the Japanese side were Mr. Tsuyoshi Saito, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Hiroyuki Nagahama, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Mr. Joe Nakano, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, among others. Attending on the Timor-Leste side were Mr. João Gonçalves, the Minister of Economy and Development, and Mr. Alberto Xavier Pereira Carlos, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, among others.

1. Opening Statement

At the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Noda expressed his appreciation for the support from Timor-Leste in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake as well as the visit to the affected area by President Ramos-Horta, (Sendai and Natori Cities, Miyagi Prefecture) scheduled on January 20. Prime Minister Noda also valued the steady progress of nation building that Timor-Leste, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its independence, has established.

President Ramos-Horta responded that he would like to express his heartfelt sympathy to those who were affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and added that the Japanese people, who are diligent and well-disciplined, had shown strong leadership in the fields such as science to overcome their hardships after the war and therefore he respects Japanese people and believes that they can overcome this difficult situation to strongly recover from the disaster again. Moreover, both sides agreed to set this year, which is the 10th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations, as the "Year of Peace and Friendship between Japan and Timor-Leste" to further strengthen the relationship. President Ramos-Horta expressed his desire to invite the Prime Minister as well as high-level officials of Japan to Timor-Leste on this occasion.

2. Bilateral Relations

Prime Minister Noda mentioned that this will be an important year for Timor-Leste as a presidential election and national parliamentary election are scheduled and added that Japan would like to continue to assist the nation-building of Timor-Leste in various fields through economic cooperation, supports for human resource development, support for democratic election, and others

President Ramos-Horta responded that although Timor-Leste has achieved double-digit economic growth in the past few years, the country still has challenges in human resource development and needs cooperation from international society. The President also stated that Japan is the best friend of Timor-Leste and once again expressed appreciation for Japan's support in bilateral relations as well as in multilateral fora such as the United Nations.