East Timor President Ramos-Horta Advocates for Diplomacy Over Force

Sustained security can’t come from ‘barrel of a gun’: East Timor’s Jose Ramos-Horta

The world can learn diplomatic lessons from Asean, East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has said in a strongly worded rebuke to existing global power structures. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, Ramos-Horta, who leads the newest and 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, argued that the bloc epitomised how dialogue could prevent conflict and yield dividends. He acknowledged that Asean was “not heaven on earth”, achieving consensus was “frustratingly sl...

By Jean Iau