THE TECHNICAL SUB-COMMITTEE MEETING BETWEEN TL-RI ON BORDER DEMARCATION AND REGULATIONS

Dili, 07 June 2004
The Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste, Mr. Nelson Santos today left for Denpasar-Bali to head Timor-Leste’s delegation to reconvene the Technical Sub-committee meeting on Border Demarcation and Regulations, from 8th-11th June 2004. His counterpart Mr. Klas Vilanueva will head the delegation for the Indonesia side. The two countries have already reached consensus on 90% of the border demarcation process.

Mr. Nelson Santos confirmed that, “During the four days meeting the two countries will follow up on issues arising from the meeting held between the respective Foreign Affairs Ministers, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta and Dr Hassan Wirajuda in Bali on 8th of May 2004. A key issue was agreement for the technical teams to finalise the interim report concerning the border delineation, which will be signed at the end of this month, significantly at the same time as the ASEAN Ministerial meeting in Jakarta.”

“The Bali meeting will take place in two parts; firstly an informal meeting (8th-9th June) for the small group to sort out the form and content of the said report, to prepare draft on MOU on this matter, and finally coordination mechanisms. The second part (10th-11th June) that constitutes the formal meeting, is for the technical people to come together to discuss the interim report and finalise it,” added Mr Santos.

Mr. Nelson Santos concluded that, “This work has been very much supported by USAID, the Technique Institute of Lisbon, the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Ministry of Justice, FDTL and I put on record my thanks to them.” “Further that, Timor-Leste is confident that the meeting will be a very productive one, designed to resolve the remaining problems and to enhance the existing cordial relations”.