Timor-Leste may only be a tiny peninsula in the Indian Ocean, but it is in a strategically important position off the coast of Australia and is seeking closer relations with major economies, particularly China. When Jose Ramos-Horta was inaugurated last year as East Timor’s fifth president since the country’s independence in 2002, the Nobel laureate pledged to build closer ties with Beijing. The country has since signed a strategic partnership with China, giving China more access to a region where it fiercely competes with the US for greater influence. “The Chinese are very interested in developing our gas field,” Ramos-Horta told DW’s Asia-Pacific bureau chief Georg Matthes adding that he is convinced that “China is not a threat to anyone.”
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