Hosted by: The AIIA ACT Branch

The event will start on: Thursday, 11 August 2011 5:30 PM

And will end on: Thursday, 11 August 2011 7:00 PM

At Hedley Bull Centre - Australian National University

ANU ,

    act.branch@aiia.asn.au

Posted by: act   

Australia’s newest diplomatic relationship:

The current status and future directions of Australia-South Sudan diplomacy

Mr Mariano Deng Ngor, Head of Mission, Republic of South Sudan Representative Office in Australia

Mr Peter Heyward, Assistant Secretary, Africa Branch, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Mr Abel Guterres, Ambassador of Timor Leste to Australia

Mr John Nyok Achouth, a member of Canberra’s South-Sudanese community

11 August 2011 5.30pm

ANU  – Hedley Bull Building, Lecture Theater 1

On 9 July 2011, South Sudan proclaimed its independence from the Republic of Sudan. As a new sovereign state, South Sudan will have to forge diplomatic relationships with states within its own region, as well as states further afield such as Australia. The building of linkages between South Sudan and Australia has been underway for some time, particularly in relation to the conduct of the independence referendum in January 2011. There are a number of areas which the relationship may touch on, such as development assistance, refugees and repatriation, educational exchange, diaspora issues, and potentially natural resources.

Representatives of the Republic of South Sudan Representative Office and the Australian Government will be invited to give their views on the current status and future directions of the relationship. The East Timorese Ambassador to Australia will be invited to share insights and lessons learned from the point of view of another diplomatic relationship that had to be built relatively recently from the ground up. Finally, a member of Canberra’s South-Sudanese community will provide an alternative viewpoint about expectations and priorities in the South-Sudanese diaspora.

This will be a panel event, in which each speaker will be asked to give a short statement about the topic before the discussion is opened up to the panel. Questions will then be taken from the audience.

This event is organised by the Australian Institute of International Affairs ACT Branch in collaboration with the Australian National University African Students’ Association.

Admission is free

Please RSVP by registering on the events page at www.aiia.asn.au, by emailing act.branch@aiia.asn.au or by calling 6232 4978