Building peace through creating and strengthening friendships: An exploration of the progress of friendship agreements

Abstract

This paper explores and evaluates the principles, dynamics, and activities of the friendship agreements. Friendship agreement represent a new phase in Australian-East Timorese relationships and offer new possibilities in the way we interact with neighbours. This paper forms part of a larger project, funded by the Australian Research Council, exploring processes of peacebuilding and reconstruction in Timor-Leste. It is divided into four sections: in the first the beginnings of and the meaning attached to the friendship agreements are explored. Then the successes and challenges faced by current friendship groups are evaluated from a peacebuilding perspective. Finally, there is a list of recommendations, some of which are from seasoned groups wanting to pass on lessons learned to new groups, and some of which represent key findings from this research.