Official Opening of the 1st Consulate General of Timor Leste

Dr Ramos-Horta, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, is traveling today to Australia to attend the official opening of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Consulate General in Sydney, Australia on the 9th of July 2003.

The visit to Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, is for first formal official inauguration of Timor-Leste Consulate General office in Sydney. The Consul General will be headed by Mr. Abel Guterres who was a staff of the Bilateral Affairs Division of this Ministry. A native from Bagia, Mr Guterres worked many years in support of the Timorese resistances in Melbourne.

"Mr. Abel Guterres come from very humble background and in 2000 I, as Foreign Minister, arranged with UK mission in Dili for him to undertake Diplomatic Foreign Service training program at University of Oxford. He going to be our first consul general in Sydney Australia because we have a very large Timorese community in Australia and most of them are based in Sydney. We have on going important relationship with Australia both official with the government and with the civil society with Universities, Parliamentarians as well as with churches NGO’s. Therefore, the Government of Timor-Leste decided to establish an Embassy in Canberra, Honorary Consulate in Melbourne, which was inaugurated last year, and a Diplomatic Consulate General in Sydney", said Dr Ramos-Horta

The office space was donated by the government of the state of New South Wales. Therefore the government of Timor-Leste will not pay for rental space for next two years. The office of consul general is located in very prestigious building in Sydney center giving to easy access to government and business institution.

During Dr Ramos-Horta stayed in Sydney he Will seize the accession in Sydney to give public lectures at the Universal Sydney concerning the United Nations. Dr Horta will also joint with Mr Hasegawa, the Deputy of SRSG, for the Launching of the UN Human Development Report and will be giving another speech to a group of lawyers from all over Australia

Prior to Dr Ramos-Horta flight to Europe, on the 14th , H.E will travel to Melbourne to give speech at the University of Melbourne entitling "International Perspective’s on Peace and Reconciliation".

Dr Horta will arrive in Dili after attending CPLP meeting in Lisbon.