China worried security support for Timor would bring ‘overreaction’: Ramos-Horta

Singapore: Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta says China has stopped short of forging greater links with Dili in supporting its military and police forces out of concern about how it would be received in Australia.

The upgrading of diplomatic relations between South-East Asia’s youngest nation and Beijing last month elicited comparisons with China’s police co-operation deal with Solomon Islands, an agreement that triggered anxiety about China expanding its influence in the Pacific.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.Credit: AP

Ramos-Horta has insisted that the new comprehensive strategic partnership signed by his Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and Chinese President Xi Jinping is focused mostly on infrastructure development and on industries such as agriculture, and is no worry for Australia.

“We could have had more Chinese support, for instance, in infrastructure to our defence forces, to our police force. And sometimes when I chat with the Chinese about increasing their support to our police force, like building our whole compound, they’d say they’d be willing to do it, but they would be concerned about the overreaction or potential overreaction in Australia and elsewhere,” he told ABC radio on Monday.

“The Chinese are actually sensitive to the sensitivities of our neighbours. They are more respectful of Australia’s position than Australia is of the Chinese position.”

China’s President Xi Jinping meets Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Hangzhou in September.

A statement by China and Timor-Leste announcing the elevation of ties in late September said the two countries had agreed to “enhance high-level military exchanges, strengthen co-operation in areas such as personnel training, equipment technology, the conduct of joint exercises and training”.

Ramos-Horta, who performs a largely ceremonial role under Timor-Leste’s semi-presidential system, has moved to downplay the significance of such engagements, reinforcing Australia’s role as Dili’s security partner of choice.

“A month ago we had an exceptional visit from for Chinese navy hospital [ship], super modern,” he said.

“That’s the kind of operation [we are talking about] … we are not talking about military training because that we do primarily with Australia.”

Among the poorest countries in Asia, Timor-Leste has already leaned on state-owned Chinese companies for a range of major projects including a highway and its national electricity grid. Beijing also built Timor’s Defence and Foreign Ministry headquarters and its presidential palace.

But less than a quarter of a century since breaking free from the oppression of Indonesian occupation, Timor-Leste’s still-prominent resistance-era figures have stressed that they want no part in geopolitical rivalries.

“For us, in our foreign affairs policy, we say ‘no alliance, no enemies, all friend’, ” independence hero Gusmao told this masthead before an election in May that returned him to the prime ministership. “For us, no more wars.”

Parker Novak, a US-based non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, said the statement outlining Dili and Beijing’s enhancement of ties wasn’t a surprise in general.

“Could it be concerning? Yes. Does it show that Timor-Leste is rhetorically embracing China? Yes. But I don’t have the same alarmist reaction that some others have had,” he said.

“To me, the agreement codifies a lot of things that were already happening between the two countries at the ground level. It’s also a reflection of Timor-Leste’s ‘friends with everybody’ approach to foreign policy. They don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t turn to China for development and economic assistance, just as they see Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the US and others as sources for assistance.”

Facing a fiscal cliff in a decade with revenue from natural resources running out, Gusmao’s government is continuing negotiations over the future of the long-stalled Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea with joint venture partner Woodside Energy.

It hopes to secure an agreement by next year to pipe gas to Timor-Leste’s south coast for processing rather than to Darwin, which has been Woodside’s preferred option.

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