Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bilyk, thank you for that question. The economic resilience of Timor-Leste is of great importance not only to the people of East Timor, but also to Australia, which has a stake in the Timor-Leste independence and sovereignty, and obviously there are very close personal relationships and friendships between our two peoples.

On a recent visit I announced an additional $20 million in budget support for Timor-Leste to support its economic resilience and recovery from COVID-19. We're also on track to provide our first bilateral concessional loan for Timor-Leste for the development of Dili airport. We have a partnership to deliver a submarine fibre-optic cable, the first such connection between Timor-Leste and Australia. And we continue to support Timor-Leste's ASEAN member aspirations and its path to ascension to the World Trade Organization. We will continue to work with Timor-Leste— (Time expired.)