Media release
22 September 2009
Australia-East Timor-Indonesia Trilateral Meeting
I met today with my Indonesian and East Timorese counterparts, Dr Hassan Wirajuda, and Mr Zacarias da Costa, for trilateral discussions on regional and global issues.
This follows on from the trilateral meeting we held on the margins of the Bali Process Ministerial meeting earlier this year, and a similar meeting at the United Nations last year.
Trilateral discussions at Ministerial level highlight the strength and importance of the relationships between Australia, Indonesia and East Timor. Such a dialogue is an important opportunity for neighbours to share our respective views about developments in our nations and the region.
I was pleased to be able to discuss with Mr da Costa and Dr Wirajuda our development assistance cooperation.
I was particularly pleased we discussed increased trilateral cooperation to combat illegal fishing in East Timorese waters. While details of additional cooperation are still under consideration, we discussed options to strengthen East Timor’s fisheries management.
We also reiterated our commitment to working together, both bilaterally and through the Bali process, to combat people smuggling.
Australia remains strongly supportive of dialogue and activity that continues the already close and substantive engagement between our three nations.
Media inquiries: Mr Smith's office 02 6277 7500 - Departmental Media Liaison 02 6261 1555