Indonesia, Brazil to set up alliance with East Timor

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Brazil agreed on Tuesday to set up a coalition with East Timor to speed up the recovery agenda in the former Indonesian province.

"It seems to be very important that there is a proposal of some kind of a triangle between Indonesia, Brazil and East Timor," visiting Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso told a joint press conference with President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Cardoso was speaking after a meeting with Abdurrahman at the Merdeka Palace.

He added that the idea "has been accepted by President Abdurrahman."

"This is a very clear signal that we are absolutely ready to cooperate to give East Timor better conditions for the construction and reconciliation of the nation," Cardoso said.

Commenting on the proposal, Abdurrahman said that Indonesia, Brazil and East Timor "will cooperate on how to help East Timor become a modern society in the future".

"We discussed the fact that there is a need for a triangle ... it is an allowable menage a trois ... I agree with that idea," Abdurrahman said.

Prior to his arrival late on Monday, Cardoso stopped over in East Timor where Brazil has a representative office, but he did not say whether he had sounded out, or won approval for, the triangular alliance idea with the territory's future leaders.

East Timor is currently under a UN transitional administration.

Brazil hopes to help rebuild East Timor whose people, like Brazilians, speak Portuguese -- especially in the area of education, the Brazilian foreign ministry has said.

Cardoso also said Jakarta and Brasilia would also seek bilateral "cooperation in the fields of agriculture and defense" in the near future.

He added that the fact he was visiting Jakarta only three months after Abdurrahman visited Brazil was "a signal for the kind of relationship we would like to have ... and the kind of new partnership between Brazil and Indonesia."

An entourage of 80 businessmen accompanying Cardoso were to meet Indonesian counterparts at a seminar organized by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) later on Tuesday.

He was due to leave Indonesia later on Tuesday. (byg)