The purpose of the visit is “start negotiations on the next Strategic Cooperation Program (PEC) for 2024-2028“, stated Manuela Bairos.
The new program “should not have major revolutionary new features, but will eventually have some new areas”he added.
“But everything depends on the Timorese government, which will decide what it wants to have in terms of strengthening bilateral cooperation”, he said.
Manuela Bairos indicated that programs in education, justice, defense and internal administration “must continue”.
The president of Camões – Institute of Language and Cooperation, who traveled with a delegation and will be in Dili until Saturday, will hold meetings with various ministries and participate in the meeting of focal points, led by the Timorese Ministry of Foreign Affairs .
Asked what the forecast is for signing the new program, the Portuguese ambassador said that it could be signed by the end of the year, taking into account that there should not be “substantial changes”, but “perhaps solutions for continuity and reinforcement”.
The PEC for the period between 2019-2023 was signed in Lisbon and had foreseen a financial envelope of 70 million euros for interventions in the sectors of Consolidation of the Rule of Law and Good Governance, Education, Training and Culture and Inclusive Socioeconomic Development.
