🇷🇺🇹🇱 President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Timor-Leste Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao held a meeting on the sidelines of the #Russia-ASEAN Summit (Kazan, June 18, 2026)

💬 Vladimir Putin: I am very pleased to welcome you to Russia, to Kazan. This is your first visit to Russia.

I would like to congratulate Timor-Leste on becoming a full member of the Association. This will certainly help strengthen your country’s standing in global affairs.

🤝 Timor-Leste is a promising partner for Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. Next year, we will mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations, which were established on the day your country officially declared its independence.

Russia took an active part in international assistance programmes for Timor-Leste, provided support through the World Food Programme, and sent civilian and police personnel to the UN Mission of Support in East Timor and the UN Integrated Mission.

We know that you personally played a major and important role in the formation of Timor-Leste’s statehood and were actively involved in the movement for Timor’s independence.

☝️ At this stage, a constructive political dialogue is developing between our countries, and we will continue to facilitate this process in every possible way.

Our Foreign Ministries also maintain regular contacts. The participation of a Timor-Leste delegation in the first International Security Forum in the Moscow Region proved useful, and we intend to continue this engagement going forward.

We are interested in developing partnership in various areas, above all energy, mineral resources development and tourism. We see opportunities to increase the still rather modest volume of bilateral trade.

We would welcome more active participation by Timor-Leste delegations in multilateral economic events in Russia, above all the St Petersburg International Economic Forum and the Eastern Economic Forum.

We are ready to develop humanitarian cooperation, including in science, education and professional training. In particular, we are ready to provide citizens of Timor-Leste with opportunities to study at Russian higher education institutions.

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