DHAKA, Dec 17, 2024 (BSS) - Visiting President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta today said that youths need to have leadership to face the current challenges and crisis both domestically and internationally. 

He made the remark while attended a Town Hall meeting with students and youth leaders in the capital. 

Students from different educational institutions and around 10 Timorese students from the Asian University of Women participated in the Town Hall meeting at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel. 

The President shared his personal journey towards freedom and equality, and insights from his experiences of overcoming adversities.

He urged the youths to engage themselves in poverty alleviation, sustainable development for climate vulnerability, and engage in the movement for social justice to create a conducive world for the people and the generations to come.

President of Timor-Leste called upon political leaders to work towards establishing peace.

Earlier, in the morning, the President of Timor-Leste delivered a public lecture on the ‘Challenges of Peace in the Contemporary World’, organized  by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS). 

President of Timor-Leste delivered the lecture as the key note speaker while foreign adviser ambassador Md Touhid Hossain attended the lecture as the guest of honour.

President of Timor-Leste shared his incomparable insights on the challenges of peace in the contemporary world, including Rohingya crisis and its impact in the region. 

He urged the world leaders to contribute from their position for a sustainable peace and tranquility in the world for the sake of humanity.

Timorese President highlighted the contribution of microcredit in poverty alleviation in Bangladesh and Timor-Leste alongside the other countries of the world.

 He shared his experience in introducing microcredit in Timor-Leste under mentorship of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus. 

He briefed the history of independence of Timor-Leste from the colonial and occupying powers, formation of government, economic trajectory, foreign policy and genesis of the country’s ASEAN forthcoming membership.

While acknowledging diplomatic wisdom of the President of Timor-Leste, the Bangladesh foreign adviser sought his good office to pursue Myanmar for resolving this protracted Rohingya crisis, in his concluding remarks. 

To ensure justice to the forcibly displaced Rohingya people, repatriation to their homeland is the only solution, the foreign adviser added. 

The foreign advisor said that absence of peace anywhere in the world implies absence of peace everywhere.

Among others, the Adviser for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Bangladesh Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Special Assistant Adviser Md Mahfuj Alam attended the meeting. 

Timorese President is visiting Dhaka on an official trip since December 144 at the invitation of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus.