Timor-Leste

Occupying 5,743 square miles on the eastern half of an island in the Timor Sea between Indonesia and Australia, Timor-Leste has a population of approximately 1.1 million people. Timor-Leste became independent on May 20, 2002, and is a democratically-governed, independent nation with an elected President and Parliament. Following successful presidential and parliamentary elections and a peaceful change of government in 2012, UN and Australian-led peacekeepers departed Timor- Leste.

Decades of occupation and periodic eruptions of post-independence violence – most recently in April 2006 – have left Timor-Leste with extremely poor infrastructure and limited economic opportunities. Electricity, telephone and telecommunications, roads, and lodging remain unreliable, particularly outside of the capital. Timor-Leste's economy relies largely on revenues from offshore oil and gas production. Read the Department of State's Fact Sheet on U.S.-Timor-Leste relations.