Dr. José Ramos-Horta to Attend the 2nd IISS Asia Security Conference

Friday, May 30, 2003

Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr. José Ramos-Horta travels today to Singapore to attend the International Conference on Asian Security in the Shangri-La Hotel, from 30th May-1st of June 2003. The theme of the conference is "Asia Security Challenges".

The conference known as, the "Shangri-La Dialog". Is the second Asian security conference being held in Singapore, and this hosted by the London based International Institute for the Strategic Studies (IISS) in cooperation with many Singapore authorities. This is the second year that Timor-Leste is invited to attend the conference.

"This conference will bring together Defense Ministers and Defense Security experts from around the world and particularly from the Asian region. It is very important for Timor-Leste to participate in this conference to understand the views on the region and those of the major players such as US, Australia and China. Security issues include the Korean Peninsula crisis, the terrorist threat in the region as well as other non traditional security challenges like transnational crimes, people smuggling, and HIV and so on", said Dr Ramos-Horta.

"This is the first time I will participate in this conference together with Mr. Ricardo da Costa Ribeiro, the Adviser for National Security Service from the Prime Minister's Office", added Dr Horta.

During the two days conference the participants will discuss US Strategy and Security in the Asia-Pacific region, Regional Perspectives on Asia-Pacific Security and confronting Terrorism in South-East Asia, Non-Proliferation Nuclear Weapons in North-East Asia and other issues.

Timor-Leste, together with 21 countries from the Asia region, will participate in this conference.