Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Both my Wife and I are privileged to welcome Your Excellency, Mister President, and Mrs. Isabel da Costa Ferreira, as well as your notable retinue, on your State Visit to Portugal.

We recall the warm hospitality with which we were received in East Timor, last year. We shall never forget the many signs of friendship shown us since the very first moment when we arrived in Dili.

We also recall with keen pleasure the noteworthy celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the independence of East Timor. The singular way with which East Timor achieved stability and national reconciliation is in effect a lesson of political maturity.

Today we feel particularly honoured and joyful to welcome Your Excellency’s State Visit to Portugal, firmly convinced that this Visit will be an historical marker in the reassertion of the brotherly friendship that links our two peoples and countries.

Our secular friendship – consolidated by a common History and language – gave rise to a unique relationship. The affection that exists between our two peoples is one of the remarkable traces of this fraternal relationship, which is much more than a mere bilateral relationship between two Sovereign States. The feelings of friendship between Portuguese and Timorese are alive and authentic, and were very visible in unique moments of recent History. It is this, as well, that we celebrate this evening.

On Independence Day, 20 May 2002, Portugal and East Timor concluded the Framework Cooperation Agreement, giving rise to an advantageous and comprehensive bilateral connection, reasserting a continuous alliance. Portugal is proud of its proximity to East Timor, a proximity that has a past, a present and a future that both of us want to continue construing.

We are pleased to have amongst us today representatives of some of the Portuguese companies that were the initiators of foreign investment in Timor. These companies are symbolic of a new stage in the cooperation between our two countries. Well aware of the national reality, these companies are representative of many of the main private social initiatives in East Timor, in addition to their known role as active promoters of training and qualification of Timorese staff.

The stability of East Timor and the successes achieved in the last 10 years allow us now to view its development with even greater ambition. Portugal wants to assume itself as a strategic partner of East Timor, in terms of cooperation for development and equally through its companies’ activities. There is a wide field of opportunities to be explored, with advantages for both parties.

Mister President,

If the economic potential of the Portuguese language is nowadays undeniable, the Timorese option to give it official statute, on a par with Tetum, was undoubtedly a political decision. Thus historical identity was honoured. Simultaneously, East Timor became a Portuguese speaking country. The adhesion of East Timor to the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries was the natural corollary of that commitment with the language and with the values that guide CPLP.

In this context, the Timorese presidency of CPLP in 2014 will be a significant addition to the soundness of this organization which, as we are well aware, faces grievous challenges. I want to reiterate to Your Excellency the Portuguese resolve in the success of the Dili Summit.

Portuguese language is more than a factor of assertion of the identity of the Timorese people, it is more than a vehicle of socio-economic and development relationship, it is more than a language of culture and knowledge. Portuguese language is a common abode: of values, solidarity, friendship.

As I had the opportunity to find out in East Timor, the expressive results achieved, in such a short time, in the consolidation of the Portuguese language and in the qualification of learning throughout the whole country are enormous sources of hope for the still lengthy path that must be followed.

Portugal will continue supporting, both bilaterally and within the CPLP framework, the efforts of the Timorese State in the promotion of Portuguese learning and in the reinforcement of Portuguese based culture.

Mister President,

2012 was a demanding year for East Timor. In addition to two electoral ballots, 2012 also sustained the departure of UNMIT. I want to congratulate you on the way Timor was able to overcome these challenges, since it achieved this with great serenity and with a high sense of responsibility.

Portugal will continue to support Timorese efforts in such important sectors as Justice, the Media and Rural Development. And in this post-UNMIT period and in the redefinition of international partnerships, we continue available to cooperate with East Timor in the field of Security, with the know-how acquired and the experience of GNR and PSP, which were always so well received in East Timor.

Mister President,

“the island / Is not just land surrounded by sea”, as Fernando Sylvan so eloquently reminded us. East Timor is nowadays an ambitious country, both in the perspective of internal growth and in the perspective of its assertion regarding Portuguese and Asian connections as well as in the framework of the United Nations.

Having started out from a complex situation, the path followed by East Timor in this decade of independence is truly admirable. Thus allow me, Mister President, to congratulate you on all that has already been achieved and to guarantee that Portugal and the Portuguese, just as happened in the past, will always side with East Timor to overcome the challenges placed by the future.

It is with this confidence and on behalf of that future that I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health and happiness of His Excellency President Taur Matan Ruak and Mrs. Isabel da Costa Ferreira, and to the deepening of the fraternal bonds that link Portugal and East Timor.