East Timor/Ireland: Ireland should expand its aid programme to East Timor, according to the country's foreign minister and Nobel Peace prize winner José Ramos Horta.
Despite international aid totalling over €1 billion since 1999, "immense needs remain", says Mr Ramos Horta, who arrives in Dublin today for a four-day official visit.
East Timor is one of seven priority countries for Development Co-operation Ireland, receiving over €18 million since voting for independence from Indonesia in a referendum six years ago.
In its bloody aftermath, an estimated 1,500 Timorese were killed and the country's infrastructure devastated by Indonesian-backed militia.
"I hope that donor countries, rich friends, do not leave in haste because there are some oil and gas revenues coming in the future," said Mr Ramos Horta, referring to oil finds in the sea between East Timor and Australia.
Another pressing concern is the end of the mandate for the current UN mission to East Timor on May 20th.
The UN's presence brings with it extensive security and financial support, but countries including the US and Australia have been lukewarm in response to requests from the government to extend its mandate.
Nonetheless, Mr Ramos Horta is confident the UN will remain, but under a new mandate which may not include the 500 international peacekeeping troops and police advisers in the country at the moment.
Tomorrow Mr Ramos Horta will give a lecture at UCD on the relationship between the United States and the UN.
Despite his radical credentials, he is uncritical of the recent appointment of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank and John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN.
"Wolfowitz is a great intellectual and knows Asia very well," he says.
He left for Ireland just hours after bidding farewell to Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who made his first state visit to what used to be called Indonesia's "27th province".