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Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 12 - Año: 2018 - Págs.: 299 a 323 312 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 12 / 2018 initial process of setting up the F-FDTL. As a result of the cooperation agreements that were concluded, Framework Programmes44 were established setting out the joint projects to be developed and the goals to be achieved within a three to four-year pe-riod. At multilateral level, defence agreements were concluded within the CPLP, in which both countries are full members and share cooperation objectives. Thus, based on historical, cultural and common language roots, Portugal, con-tributes to the security and sustainable development of friendly countries, as well as world peace. Portugal’s military-technical cooperation45 in East Timor entails per-sonnel training and technical advisory activities focused on human and institutional training, and has permitted the development of national military capabilities essential for the international projection of East Timor46 (MDN, 2014). As a result of the “International Donor Conference” to support the creation of the F-FDTL, held in Dili at the end of 2000, Portugal allocated financial resources, mili-tary goods and equipment, as well as specialised (military) personnel to participate in the selection and recruitment of human resources and the training and organisation of the international structure that would eventually become the F-FDTL. In terms of materiel, it is worth mentioning the donation of uniforms for 600 soldiers and two patrol boats of the “Albatross” class. The selection and recruitment process involved 1,700 Falintil volunteers, of whom almost 650 were selected and appointed to the F-FDTL 1st battalion, the naval component, General Staff personnel and the training unit whose headquarters were to be in Metinaro. Those not selected were offered UN-sponsored civilian retraining programmes, offering them a reinsertion grant of US $ 200, a measure which ended up giving rise to security problems that remain en-trenched in East Timor to this day ... But that is the subject for another investigation. Military training commenced at the beginning of February 2001, after a ceremony to mark the dissolution of the Falintil held in Aileu, in the mountainous area of ​​East Timor (a mythical place for the Falintil), on the previous January 29. The event, which was attended by top-level Timorese and international figures, marked the beginning of an unpreceden-ted historical framework for the transformation of an unregulated resistance army into a conventional armed force. The process, under the supervision of Portugal, was developed in two phases and coordinated by the now extinct Practical School of Infantry (PSI)47 with 44  PQ: Programas - Quadro. 45  MINISTÉRIO DA DEFESA NACIONAL DE PORTUGAL. Anuário Estatístico de Defesa Nacional, Lisbon, 2001-2012. A series of actions that simultaneously constitute a vector for the consolidation of the democratic system of the beneficiary countries through the organisation/ constitution of a politically neutral Armed Force, guaranteeing the smooth operation of the institutions, and a vector for economic and social development through the formation of frameworks and the organisation of operational structures. 46  MINISTÉRIO DA DEFESA NACIONAL DE PORTUGAL. «Programa-Quadro de Cooperação Técnico-Militar Luso-Timorense». Lisbon, 2014. 47  EPI: Escola Prática de Infantaria.


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