President of Timor-Leste sees Belt and Road Initiative as exceptional vision

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an exceptional vision and Timor-Leste has been benefiting from China's assistances in multiple sectors, said Jose Ramos-Horta, president of the Southeast Asian country on Saturday.

On the sidelines of the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security summit, which was held from Friday to Sunday in Singapore, Ramos-Horta talked with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) to share his views on the role China has played in international affairs and bilateral relations.

In recent years, China and Timor-Leste have jointly carried out a number of Belt and Road projects. Ramos-Horta spoke highly of the initiative's role in boosting connectivity across Eurasia.

"The Belt and Road Initiative [is], I would say, an exceptional vision. We supported it from day one, and me because I've been interested not only about my country, but I have a wide angle view of the world, and I am very supportive of the One Belt One Road initiative reconnecting Asia and reconnecting Asia with Europe, following the old silk road," he said.

Timor-Leste and China officially established diplomatic relations in 2002. Over the past two decades, China has helped Timor-Leste improve its infrastructure and the Chinese hybrid rice significantly increased local farmers' yields, according to Ramos-Horta.

"We have had already cooperation since 2000. And infrastructure like office buildings that we needed, we had zero [back then]. China has been supporting with medical doctors working in our hospitals, eye doctors and the other specialists. I know some of them personally," said the president.

"China has been cooperating in agriculture to improve productivity, because our productivity, for instance in rice, very low, three tons per hectare. But now it's increasing to five and will reach eight tons per hectare. I have seen some Chinese experiments, I have pictures of that. I've been there, [it's] really very promising," he said.

President of Timor-Leste sees Belt and Road Initiative as exceptional vision

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has topped 50,000, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday.

In the past 24 hours, 41 bodies and 61 wounded people were brought to hospitals across Gaza, bringing the total death toll to 50,021, with 113,274 injured since fighting erupted in early October 2023, the statement said.

Since a new wave of Israeli airstrikes began on March 18, at least 673 people have been killed and 1,233 wounded, the health authorities said.

Also on Sunday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned that Israel's three-week blockade of aid to Gaza is accelerating a hunger crisis.

"No food, no medicines, no water, no fuel. A siege more stringent than during the initial phase of the war," the agency posted on social media platform X.

It emphasized that Gaza's population relies on imports for survival, with children increasingly facing starvation and disease as aid remains blocked.

Israel halted all supply entries to Gaza on March 2, citing security concerns.

Salah al-Bardawil, a senior Hamas leader and member of its political bureau, was killed Sunday along with his wife in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his tent inside a camp for displaced persons west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian media reports.

Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpasses 50,000 as Israel continues military operation