Singapore, July 16 (AseanAll)  — Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Xanana Gusmão paid an Official Visit to Singapore from 13 to 16 July 2025. 

Xanana Gusmão received a ceremonial welcome, called on Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and met Singaporean Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong. Wong also hosted Prime Minister Gusmão to an Official Lunch.

During the meetings, both sides affirmed the warm and longstanding ties between Singapore and Timor-Leste, which precede Timor-Leste’s independence. President Tharman and Prime Minister Wong welcomed the deepening of bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, human resource development, and people-to-people exchanges. They reaffirmed Singapore’s commitment to support Timor-Leste’s development through capacity building programmes and welcomed more Timorese officials to participate in the Singapore Cooperation Programme. To date, over 1,100 Timorese officials have participated in courses organised by Singapore. Prime Minister Wong expressed appreciation for the gift of 60 sandalwood saplings from Timor-Leste in commemoration of SG60.

To support Timor-Leste’s upcoming accession to ASEAN, Singapore will launch a customised enhanced Singapore-Timor-Leste ASEAN Readiness Support (eSTARS) Package. This new package will run from July 2025 to December 2028 and builds on the STARS programme launched in December 2022. The eSTARS package will include wider access to ASEAN-related training courses and expertise to support Timor-Leste’s integration into ASEAN. Beyond the ambit of ASEAN,Singapore will also offer scholarships, capacity building programmes, and customised leadership training for Timor-Leste officials. More details on the eSTARS package are at Annex.