Timor-Leste signed up to the Cotonou Agreement in 2005. The Partnership Agreement comprises members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States - including Timor-Leste - and the EU and its Member States.

It focuses on three main areas:

• Political cooperation.
• Development cooperation.
• Economic and trade cooperation.

As stipulated by the Cotonou Agreement, the EU and Timor-Leste hold regular Political Dialogue sessions, usually once per year. These dialogues allow the parties to review achievements and challenges under the partnership and to address issues of common interest.

The last session was held on 28 January 2021. Due to Covid-19, it was organised by video conference. The 2022 session is scheduled to take place in Dili.

The Cotonou Agreement started implementation in 2000 and had a duration of 20 years. Its successor agreement (negotiated text) has been initialled by all parties, including Timor-Leste, and will be signed in the second half of 2021. The new agreement will officially succeed the Cotonou Agreement once both sides complete their internal procedures for signature and conclusion.

It will shape the political and economic relations in various policy areas between the EU and the 79 ACP States for the next twenty years (2021 – 2041).

The new agreement goes beyond its predecessor in various fields and is a political achievement.

It is expected to be a game-changer by:

• Allowing the partnership to become more political.
• Redesigning and strengthening the EU’s bilateral relations with each region.
• Raising the international ambitions as a group to achieve more together.

moving beyond the traditional development dimension focussing on key common interests and aspirations at local, national, regional and international levels.

Global Gateway is the European strategy to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world. Global Gateway is fully aligned with the UN’s Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the Paris Agreement and aims to mobilise up to €300 billion in investments. Through a 'Team Europe approach', Global Gateway will bring together the EU, its Member States and their financial and development institutions to mobilise the private sector to leverage investments for a transformational impact.

The Indo- Pacific is an area of increasingly strategic significance for Europe. The EU intends to increase its engagement with the region to build partnerships that reinforce the rules-based international order, address global challenges and lay the foundation for a rapid, just and sustainable development.

The EU, through its Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and Global Gateway, engages constructively on the ground with concrete initiatives and programmes that respond to the priorities of our partners, increasing the EU positive influence in the region.

The Pacific is  among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and natural disasters and a hotspot for biodiversity loss, deforestation and pollution.

The Green-Blue Alliance for the Pacific, managed by the EU Delegation to Fiji, is the overarching project for Global Gateway in the Pacific region focusing on climate action, resilience and sustainable use of natural capital.

Over the years of 2020 and 2021, specific support to Timor-Leste’s COVID-19 response has been made available by the European Union.

More than €7 million – new funding and reallocations of existing funds - have been spent to support the Ministry of Health and NGOs to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Interventions range from surveillance and laboratory activities to capacity building of health workers in risk communication and clinical case management. PPEs and sanitary commodities, COVID-19 testing kits, reagents, hand washing units, information material; training of front line workers (such as the police and health personnel) have been financed and rehabilitation works done at the five referral hospitals in Timor-Leste to strengthen the response capacity across the country. The provision of food, hygienic kits and vouchers for at-risk families affected by the socioeconomic crisis, and support to the media to better cover COVID-19 related issues, were also included in the EU’s assistance.

Last but not least, Timor-Leste is benefitting significantly from the COVAX Vaccine Sharing Facility of which the EU is one of the biggest donors.

Public diplomacy has become an essential foreign policy tool to engage more and better with key target audiences and partners, increase their understanding of the European Union (and of its policies), build common ground and coalitions.

With our public diplomacy and strategic communication initiatives in Timor-Leste, we aim at developing durable and trusted channels of engagement with our key target audiences and partners and fostering networks that can support the achievement of shared priorities by involving youth, students, academics, influencers, multipliers, media, business, civil society and the cultural sector.

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