East Timorese-Swiss relations

East Timorese-Swiss relations

East Timor	Switzerland

The political and economic East Timorese-Swiss relations are modest.

history

On June 25, 1914, the Swiss judge Charles Édouard Lardy from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued an arbitral award (Sentenca Arbitral) on the demarcation of the border between the Dutch part of Timor and Portuguese Timor . The demarcation largely corresponds to the current border between East Timor and Indonesia .

During the occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, several non-governmental organizations in Switzerland supported East Timor's striving for independence, such as the Association pour la Cause de Timor Oriental (ACTO) and the Association Urgence pour un Timor Libre .

After the crisis in East Timor in 1999 and the withdrawal of the Indonesian occupying power, Switzerland supported the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the refugee radio in East Timor Hirondelle Foundation. In addition, Switzerland provided extensive support for the victims and a financial contribution to the peacekeeping force of the United Nations .

The recognition of East Timor through Switzerland was carried out with the dismissal of the Southeast Asian country to independence on May 20, 2002. As a representative of the Federal Council took Gerard Fonjallaz , the Swiss ambassador in Indonesia Jakarta , attended the independence ceremony. With a joint communiqué on September 16, 2002, diplomatic relations between Switzerland and East Timor were officially established. East Timor became a member of the United Nations on September 27, 2002 , 17 days after Switzerland. At the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York (September 10-15, 2002) it was signed by Foreign Minister José Ramos-Horta and Federal Councilor Joseph Deiss .

Switzerland only finances individual development aid projects in East Timor with an annual amount of 50,000 Swiss francs. For the parliamentary elections in East Timor in 2007 and 2012 , Switzerland sent two election observers as part of the European Union (EU) election observation missions .

At the end of 2012, three Swiss nationals were living in East Timor.

diplomacy

The Swiss Ambassador Kurt Kunz and East Timor’s President Francisco Guterres (2019)

Switzerland does not have its own embassy in East Timor and is represented there by the Swiss embassy in Jakarta. Ambassador in Jakarta has been Kurt Kunz since 2018 .

East Timor has an embassy in Geneva . The ambassador is also the permanent representative at the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations.

See also : List of the East Timorese ambassadors in Switzerland

economy

According to the East Timor’s Statistical Office , Switzerland exported goods worth 417,000 US dollars (2016: 807,000 US dollars) to East Timor in 2016. It was thus in 28th place (2016: 22nd place) in the ranking of importers in East Timor. Exports from East Timor to Switzerland were not registered for 2016 and 2018, but re- exports to Switzerland in the amount of 8,000 US dollars.

Entry requirements

Citizens of East Timor are exempt from the visa requirement for the Schengen states . Swiss people can also enter East Timor without a visa.

Web links

Commons : East Timorese-Swiss Relations  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Swiss Embassy in Indonesia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hague Justice Portal: Island of Timor: Award - Boundaries in the Island of Timor  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  
2. ^ ETAN: List of East Timor Support and Solidarity Groups Worldwide , accessed January 24, 2018.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA: Bilateral Relations between Switzerland and Timor-Leste , accessed on January 1, 2018.
4. ↑ Switzerland recognizes East Timor. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 1, 2002, accessed on January 1, 2018.
5. ↑ United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library: DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN TIMOR-LESTE AND… AS OF… , accessed on January 21, 2018.
6. ↑ Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA: Swiss representation in Timor-Leste , accessed on January 1, 2018.
7. ↑ Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA: Information on entry requirements / visas for Timor-Leste , accessed on January 1, 2018.
8. ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística: External Trade Statistics Annual Reports 2016 ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 10, 2018. 
9. ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística: External Trade Statistics Annual Reports 2018 , accessed on April 17, 2019.
10. ↑ Introduced with Regulation (EU) No. 509/2014 (PDF) of May 15, 2014, which came into force on June 9 , 2014.