What do Portuguese think about East Timor / Timor-Leste?

Portuguese in general think highly about East-Timor. When the cemitery massacre happened in the 90's, Portugal was in national grief. And it was António Guterres, current UN leader but at the time Portugal's prime-minister, that proposed to NATO countries the Independence of East-Timor. read more

Timorese Portuguese is a legacy of Portuguese rule of Timor-Leste (called Portuguese Timor) from the 16th century. It had its first contact during the Portuguese discoveries of the East, but it was largely exposed to Portuguese Timor in the 18th century after its division from the rest of the island by the Netherlands. read more

According to the Wikipedia article on East Timorese Portuguese, there are only 600 native speakers of Portuguese in all of East Timor as of the country's 2010 census. However, when you include second- and third-language speakers (and those who don't necessarily speak the language fluently), the figure jumps to 36.7% of all East Timorese. read more