CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED
A warm welcome, Your Excellency, and a warm welcome also to you, First Lady of Timor-Leste, Ms Isabel Ferreira.
Your Excellency, I know that you are no stranger to Australia.
Your previous visits as Chief of the Defence Force have a lasting legacy in the enduring links you forged with Australia’s military leadership.
However, this is your first visit as President, and it is a privilege to welcome an old friend in a new and distinguished capacity.
Mr President, I have also been a frequent visitor to your beautiful country over the years.
Timor-Leste was one of the first countries I visited as Prime Minister, reflecting the importance I personally place on our relationship.
I last visited Timor-Leste as Foreign Minister in July 2011.
I visited Timor-Leste’s National Police Academy – supported by the AFP’s Timor-Leste Police Development Program.
I travelled to Maliana in Timor-Leste’s west to visit a farming community benefitting from the AusAID and ACIAR-supported Seeds of Life program.
The friendship between our people goes back far beyond independence in 2002.
It was forged in the jungles of World War II, when brave and selfless Timorese locals gave shelter, food and assistance to the Australian soldiers of Sparrow Force.
These ties were strengthened from the mid-1970s onwards, when Timorese communities established themselves in Melbourne, Sydney and Darwin.
Our friendship deepened again when Australia led the multilateral INTERFET force after the independence ballot.
And again when we participated in the UN International Stabilisation Force.
Many Timorese who made a safe home here in Australia during those difficult years of conflict have now returned to Timor-Leste.
Lending their energies and talents to the building of a proud new nation.
Now, a decade on from independence, our relationship is that of close neighbours, good friends and partners.
History tells us it can take a nation a generation, or more, to build resilience and confidence after conflict.
Timor-Leste has turned its face to the future with resolve and energy.
And in one short decade it has laid the foundations of a modern state.
It has been a transition to a more stable and self-determined future.
But a future in which friends are still within hearing, still there with a hand outstretched.
So, while domestic and military security is now in the hands of Timor-Leste’s own, home-grown forces, Australia is still there, helping to build local capacity through our bilateral defence and policing programs.
And Australians are working side by side with locals to help achieve the Timor-Leste Government’s ambitious development goals.
Delivering health and education projects.
Ensuring that women get the health services they need during pregnancy.
Delivering water and sanitation infrastructure.
Pursuing rural development goals.
Re-building the rural roads so essential to economic supply chains.
Repairing destroyed schools, so that children can get the education they deserve.
The students enrolled in primary education rose from 190,000 in 2000, to almost 239,000 in 2010, a significant achievement.
Today almost half of the students who complete primary school are girls.
We’ll continue to work together – and in partnership with others in the region.
Last week in Indonesia I met President Yudhoyono and I note – Mr President – that you also visited Indonesia on a state visit last month.
The inaugural trilateral leaders meeting between our three countries was held November 2012 and we look forward to further discussions.
I am heartened to see that we both have such strong relationships with our near neighbour.
And all three nations are committed to exploring the possibilities of working more closely together.
The Seasonal Worker Program is another example of a new area where we are working together for mutual benefit.
People, and the connections between them, have historically been at the heart of the relationship between Timor-Leste and Australia.
That won’t change.
Whatever our shared path over the coming years, we will tread it together.
Your Excellency – obrigardo wain.
I thank you for honouring us with your visit.
You are among friends.