Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will use his first official visit to East Timor on Wednesday to press for closer cooperation on security and energy, signaling Canberra’s intent to deepen ties with its northern neighbor amid regional competition and major gas development talks.
Albanese is due to address East Timor’s parliament in Dili, where he will highlight shared history and outline Australia’s interest in expanding collaboration beyond aid into long-term economic and strategic partnerships.
According to excerpts released ahead of the speech, Albanese will reference cooperation between Australian and Timorese forces during World War II as a foundation for future engagement.
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“We look towards a shared future — a new deeper partnership in security, in energy and economic resilience,” Albanese is expected to tell lawmakers, underscoring Canberra’s push to strengthen regional stability and supply chains.
The visit comes as East Timor advances plans to develop its offshore gas resources and weigh infrastructure options that could reshape its economic trajectory.
East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta said last month he was confident a long-delayed gas project would move forward with Australia’s involvement after decades of negotiations.
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In December, Australia’s Woodside Energy and East Timor agreed to study a liquefied natural gas project with a planned capacity of 5 million metric tons at the Greater Sunrise fields. The area is estimated to hold about 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and has been under discussion since the 1980s, initially involving Indonesia.
East Timor’s national oil company, Timor Gap, controls more than 56% of the Greater Sunrise field, which lies roughly 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of the country and more than 400 kilometers from Australia’s northern city of Darwin. Dili has long advocated building processing facilities on its own south coast rather than exporting gas to Australia.
East Timor, home to about 1.4 million people, became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in October as it seeks to strengthen its fragile, oil-dependent economy.
China has also expanded its engagement with the country, signing a strategic cooperation agreement in 2023 focused on infrastructure and development. Ramos-Horta has previously said the deal does not include military cooperation.
Australia has remained East Timor’s largest aid donor and security partner since the country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, a role reinforced by the deployment of Australian peacekeepers during periods of unrest.
