| Monday,
June 21, 2004
for immediate release
TIMOR-LESTE AND INDONESIA
BEGIN TO DRAFT THE AGREEMENT ON BORDER DEMARCATION AND REGULATION
The Secretary
General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the
Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Mr. Nelson Santos will be traveling
to Jakarta, Indonesia, with the Timor-Leste delegation to attend the
meeting of the Technical Sub-Committee on Border Demarcation and Regulation
which will be held on 22 - 24 of June 2004 and the Special Joint Border
Committee meeting (JBC) on 25 of June 2004. Mr. Nelson Santos is the
Chairman of the Timor-Leste side. The Indonesia side is headed by
Mr. Klass Vilanueva.
The meeting is the continuation of the recent Bali meeting held
on 08 - 11 of June 2004. The objective to double check the Technical
work, complete the interim report and begin drafting the provisional
agreement. This
agreement will be signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Cooperation of RDTL, Dr. José Ramos-Horta and his counterpart
Dr. Hassan Wirajuda, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic
of Indonesia, on the margins of
the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting at the end of this month in Jakarta.
Timor-Leste
and Indonesia have been actively conducting the meeting of the Technical
Sub-Committee on Border Demarcation and Regulation since it was
established in 2001. Both sides recently reached a consensus on
90% of the land border length at the recent high meeting, between
the two Ministers of Foreign Affairs on May 09, 2004 in Bali.
"The of
90% result, shows the level of trust, and cooperation as well as
the friendly atmosphere created by both sides", said Mr. Nelson
Santos. He added that, "The negotiation between these two countries
on the land border
is based on the 1904 Treaty and the Arbitral Decision on 1914, made
by the Dutch and Portuguese.
Furthermore,
Mr. Nelson stated that, "The two countries have agreed that
the remaining 10% of the differences that exist required further
technical assessment. Both Technical Teams will return to the field
to undertake
further works and hopefully reached consensus on the border length
on the occasion of the 3rd Joint Ministerial Meeting between Timor-Leste
and Indonesia that tentatively will be held on September/October
2004, in
Indonesia".
The process of
the Border Demarcation and Regulation is lead by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. The project also involves various
Ministries, UNMISET and the "Instituto Superior Técnico
da Universidade de Lisboa", headed by Prof. João Matos.
He is also the Technical Coordinator of the project and has been
very active involve since its very first day.
The process has
reached this phase because of the great assistance and continuing
support from the USAID office in Dili. "USAID office has been
very kind and serious in supporting this project, and they have
been demonstrated their commitment to continue this financial support",
added Mr. Nelson.
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