DILI, 30 May 2026 (TATOLI) – Addressing a global audience of Defense Ministers and Security experts at the 23rd IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, President of the Republic, Jose Ramos-Horta delivered a powerful Special Address titled “Defining the Third Path.”
The Nobel Peace Laureate offered a candid and sobering assessment of the current international security architecture, describing the UN Security Council as “moribund, sclerotic, and irrelevant.”
The President urged world leaders to abandon the destructive logic of rival blocs and instead embrace a renewed form of practical diplomacy that prioritizes restraint, consistency, and the patient construction of trust.
A cornerstone of the President’s address was his visionary proposal to transform the South China Sea into a “Zone of Peace,” governed by the principles of UNCLOS and free from the suspicion-fueled expansion of military bases.
Highlighting the staggering disparity between the $3 trillion spent on global military expenditure in 2025 versus the decline in climate and development finance and reminded the summit that hardware alone cannot secure a fractured world.
As President Ramos-Horta poignantly stated: “A missile can deter an adversary but it cannot hold back the sea. A tank can defend a border, but it cannot restore a failed harvest. A submarine can patrol an ocean, but it cannot rebuild trust in a society displaced by disaster and conflict.”
Drawing on Timor-Leste’s remarkable journey of reconciliation with Indonesia and the “Banyan tree” diplomacy of ASEAN, the President argued that sovereignty and cooperation are not opposites.
The Head of State emphasized that for island nations, climate change and the “Blue Economy” are not abstract environmental issues but existential security crises that require urgent, collective action.
President Ramos-Horta concluded by calling on middle and smaller powers to forge a “Third Path”—a pragmatic and principled middle ground that refuses to accept a future organized around confrontation, choosing instead to build coalitions based on shared human resilience.
TATOLI
