KAY RALA XANANA GUSMÃO, PRIME MINISTER OF TIMOR-LESTE: It is my great honour to welcome Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese MP to Timor-Leste for this official visit. Prime Minister Albanese’s visit is an important moment in the relationship between our two countries and reflects the depth of friendship, trust and partnership between Timor-Leste and Australia. Our discussions today were warm, open and productive. We agreed to establish a new partnership for the new era that reflects the maturity of our relationship and our shared future. Our relationship has been shaped by solidarity in times of conflict and by partnership in peace. Today, we reaffirmed our shared commitment to a peaceful and prosperous region. Australia has been a strong supporter of Timor-Leste’s accession to ASEAN, and I thank the Prime Minister for his support. We reaffirmed the importance of international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Our 2018 Maritime Boundary Treaty remains a powerful example of how disputes can be resolved peacefully and fairly through dialogue and law. Our talks today also focus on promoting development and creating jobs, and Australia's continued partnership in supporting these priorities.
We reaffirmed our shared commitment to the development of Greater Sunrise. Timor-Leste’s position on Greater Sunrise has always, always been real. The natural gas fields of Greater Sunrise must be processed on shore in Timor-Leste. This is essential for our national development and for the long-term strength of our family. Development of Greater Sunrise will provide jobs and opportunities for young Timorese to gain skills and participate in emerging industries. I reinforced with the Australian Prime Minister that Timor-Leste is committed to progressing Greater Sunrise in a manner that is commercially sound, technically appropriate and aligned with the interests of our people. I am very pleased that today we agreed to accelerate our negotiation to finalise the Petroleum Mining Code, the Production Sharing Contract and the Fiscal Regime expeditiously. We also discussed Australia's labour mobility programs which continue to deliver real benefits for Timorese workers and their families. We agree to work together to increase the number of Timorese that can work in Australia. People to people links remain at the heart of our relationship. It was Australians like Prime Minister Albanese that actively supported our struggle for independence. We reaffirmed our commitment to strengthen the bonds within our peoples, including civil society, church and friendship group, school groups and veterans.
I also announce today that Timor-Leste has identified a parcel of land in Dili, next to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Coorporation, which we will grant Australia for the construction of a new embassy. This grant of land allows us to reciprocate after Australia provided land to Timor-Leste which allowed us to build our embassy in Canberra. We are pleased that Australia is planning to build a new and larger embassy which reflects its strong and long-term commitment to Timor-Leste. At a time of global change and uncertainty, Timor-Leste highly values our partnership with Australia. We share a vision for a world that is peaceful, where development is inclusive, where international law provides the basis for preventing conflict and where human rights are upheld. I thank Prime Minister Albanese for his visit, for Australia's friendship, and for the progress that we have made today to work together for the benefit of our peoples.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, good afternoon and I want to begin by thanking Prime Minister Gusmão for the invitation for me to visit for the first time as Prime Minister, my second visit here to Dili. I must say the warm welcome that I received from literally thousands of children was overwhelming, as well as from the people on the side of the route that we took this morning. It was indeed a real sign of the affection and warmth between our two peoples. And I thank the Prime Minister for that. I also thank the President for driving the car for us as well, so successfully, because some of those children were running in front of the car as we went along. I'm also joined by my friend Luke Gosling, who has such a strong relationship with Timor-Leste. He served here as an Officer in the Australian Defence Force and came back to assist the development here in Timor-Leste as well. Timor-Leste is of course, our neighbour from Australia. You don't get to choose your neighbours, but you do get to choose your friends. And Timor-Leste is a friend and has a friend in Australia as we go forward.
Today, we've reflected the strength of that friendship and the relationship by signing the Parseria; ‘A New Partnership for a New Era’, elevating the friendship between Timor-Leste and Australia to a new level, the first of its kind between our two nations. The partnership cements our cooperation across economic security, development and people to people relations right across the board. It is a very comprehensive agreement. It acknowledges the mutual respect for national sovereignty and our shared commitment to continuing cooperation and consultation, not just between our two countries, but also, we've spoken about working together. As the Prime Minister has said, we live in uncertain times with a lot of turbulence around the world. We are reliable partners and we can cooperate in the development of the vision that we both share for a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. Australia is honoured to be Timor-Leste's largest development partner. Through this new partnership, we'll continue to work with Timor-Leste on nation building priorities that matter to the people of both of our nations. We've also discussed our interest today in building economic resilience and providing opportunities for all people of Timor-Leste. There's now over 5,000 Timorese are working in Australia. We want to build that up to 10,000, which is in the interest of both of our nations.
Last year, Timor-Leste became ASEAN's eleventh member and Australia was very supportive of that. And I want to acknowledge the Prime Minister's role and leadership on this. To further support Timor-Leste's ASEAN accession, I'm announcing today that Australia will boost the funding that we’ve provided for technical assistance and capacity building package so that the total will be up to $20 million, an increase of $8.2 million. Supporting our partners along the journey of economic development and resilience is so important for securing opportunities for the entire region.
I'm also pleased to announce two new programs, the Private Sector Development Program and a Human Development Initiative to improve the quality and reach of critical health services, education and disability support. These are all areas where Australia is proud to support Timor-Leste's aspirations, the growth and wellbeing of Timorese people.
Australia and Timor-Leste share a common history. We fought side by side in the pursuit of peace during the World War II and our veterans, including my mentor Tom Uren and others, Bluey Rutherford and others, who were captured and became prisoners of war at the Japanese. In Tom Uren’s case, in 1941, they remembered for the rest of their life the debt of gratitude that Australia owes to the Timorese people who provided such extraordinary support at our darkest hour. We supported the 1999 independence referendum process and we helped secure peace again in 2006. Australia has engaged consistently in providing support for Timor-Leste and now together we've taken the next step, which this agreement today represents. I do want to thank the Prime Minister for his friendship and his hospitality. And I want to acknowledge as well my friendship with President Ramos-Horta that goes back literally to last century when we first met in Australia. I look forward to continuing to work together under our new partnership, furthering a region that is secure, stable and flourishing.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what news do you bring on the Greater Sunrise project? If it is not settled are you concerned that Timor-Leste might seek partnership with China?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: I think that I bring good news on the Greater Sunrise project. I think that the agreement that we've signed today, that you will see, acknowledges how important it is for both of our nations, but particularly important for economic development in Timor-Leste. We have appointed Dr Katrina Cooper, who is one of our most experienced international diplomats, to be the Sherpa that is to push things along between the commercial partners to make sure that we achieve an outcome that is very important. The most recent negotiations occurred in Canberra in December 2025 and so this is a shared resource between Australian Timor-Leste. Of course agreement need to be consistent with the criteria that was set out in the 2018 Maritime Boundary Treaty. I'm very optimistic and positive and I know this is such an important project for Prime Minister Gusmão and I share his enthusiasm for it.
JOURNALIST: When will there be a deal with Timor-Leste?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: For Greater Sunrise? We are hoping, we're working these issues through. Of course there are commercial partners involved with it, but today's and the Sunrise joint venture of course is Woodside, TIMOR GAP, Osaka Gas, as well they will put forward a proposed development plan for Greater Sunrise. And today's agreement that we have signed, the Parseria, acknowledges how important this project is.
JOURNALIST: Timor-Leste has expressed its preference for the Greater Sunrise Pipeline to be developed towards Timor-Leste. Could you share your perspective on this matter?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: You're getting off easily here, Prime Minister. You'll want me to come here more often I suspect. Look, we will work through these issues in a constructive way. We acknowledge that there is commercial issues involved so we will allow that process to occur. But it will occur as well with oversight from my government and I'm absolutely certain that Prime Minister Gusmão will be providing oversight as well.
JOURNALIST: The Chinese Ambassador to Australia today said that Beijing would act to protect Landbridge's interest if the Australian government were to try to take back the Port of Darwin. Are you prepared to stand up to the Ambassador and to Xi Jinping and take back the port by the end of the year?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: We've made it very clear that we want the Port of Darwin, that was sold to non-Australian interests with a financial incentive from the former coalition government to the Northern Territory government, that that wasn't something that we supported at the time. And we are committed to making sure that that Port goes back into Australian hands because that is in our national interest. Thanks.