Appointment of Xanana Gusmao as East Timor's Prime Minister

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Xanana Gusmao on his appointment as Prime Minister of East Timor. Mr Gusmao has been a key figure in East Timor’s recent history, and Australia looks forward to working with him and his Government. The new Prime Minister and Government are expected to be sworn in on 8 August.

Australia also looks forward to working with East Timor’s Fretilin party which, with 21 out of 65 seats, will have an important role to play in the new parliament.

I encourage all parties to work constructively to allow East Timor to address its challenges and move forward. I would also like to call on the East Timorese people – who participated peacefully and in large numbers in the recent parliamentary election – to accept the outcome of the democratic process and refrain from violence.

Australia is playing a key role in East Timor, with the full support of the East Timorese leadership. In addition to our significant development assistance program, we are providing troops and police officers to the International Security Force and UN police (UNPOL) respectively. We currently deploy over 1,000 troops to the ISF and 50 police officers to UNPOL.

Media Inquiries: Mr Downer's office 02 6277 7500 - Departmental Media Liaison 02 6261 1555