US President-elect George W. Bush's nomination of Condoleezza Rice as his National Security Adviser and Colin Powell as Secretary of State is reassuring to East Timor, Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta said Monday.
"I was so pleased and touched by President-elect Bush's announcement of the appointment of the new secretary of state and national security adviser," he said, speaking in Singapore.
"There could be no more sensitive, reliable people at the helm of US foreign policy because of their particular background," he said in a speech organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"I believe we will also have a very sensitive engagement by the US at least in regard to East Timor, if not in regard to the rest of the world."
The US has kept a watchful eye on East Timor since it was ravaged by pro-Jakarta militias after a vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999.
The US ambassador to Jakarta Robert Gelbard recently warned Indonesia it risked losing international support if it failed to disband militias still operating from West Timor.