China - Activity Report
December 1975, Indonesian troops invaded Timor-Leste causing untold sufferings to the Timorese people. At that time, Timor-Leste was no longer under Portuguese rule.
In 1998, H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung bought a former Royal Australian Navy survey vessel, H.M.A.S. Morsby, and renamed it after his wife, Patricia Anne Hotung,. This ship transported refugees from Indonesia back to Dili/Com Timor-Leste. Over 12,000 refugees were returned home safely by sea from the refugee camps.
The ship carried 400 tons of emergency aid and materials during the first stage of international help after the crisis in December 1999 from Darwin Australia to Dili.
In addition, as a gift to the people of Timor-Leste, H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung authorized the Hotung family trust of HICL to extensively refurbish and upgrade the Comoro International Airport in Dili. This included the donation of an air-conditioned pre-fabricated medical building at the Bairo Pite Clinic which is helped medical teams tend to the needs of the sick.
In April 2000, H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation from the Bairo Pite Clinic, Timor-Leste.
In August 2002, the Timor-Leste government appointed H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung as Ambassador at Large for Timor-Leste.
In September 2002, the Hotung Institute for International Relations hosted the official delegation in New York & Washington that attended the occasion of Timor-Leste becoming a member of the UN General Assembly.
On the 12th June 2003 in New York, H.E Ambassador Eric Hotung received the Servitor Pacis Award in recognition for services to humanity.
In 2022, Sean Hotung, on behalf of the Hotung Institute for International Relations, warmly congratulated Jose Ramos-Horta’s bid to become President ofTimor-Leste (again).
H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung
with M.V. Patricia Ann Hotung in Darwin, Australia before sailing to East Timor.
M.V. Patricia Hotung
President Xanana Gusmao welcomes H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung.
January 2000, H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung with President Gusmao of Timor-Leste and Qi Huai Yuan, of the People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
Photo taken at Beijing with President Xanana Gusmao and Senior Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr Jose Ramos-Horta.
Flag raising ceremony at the UN Headquarters in New York. Timor-Leste President Gusmao, H.E. Kofi Annan, Prime Minister H.E. Mari Alkatiri, H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung and H.E. Jose Ramos-Horta.
Timor-Leste President Gusmao, Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Jose Ramos-Horta and H.E. Ambassador Hotung at a dinner given in honour of President Gusmao in New York at the residence (Osborne) of H.E. Ambassador Hotung.
H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung and Mrs Hotung with H.E. Bishop D. Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belos at a reception given by H.E. Kofi Annan, UN headquarters in New York. |
On occasion of the Independence of Timor-Leste, H.E. Ambassador Eric Hotung receives The Falintil Gold Medal of Resistance from the Comandante Em-Chief Da F.D.T.L., Taur Matan Ruak.
MV. Patricia Anne Hotung loaded with refugees that have been returned to Timor-Leste from the refugee camps in Indonesia.