On October 9, IPSI nonresident fellow Parker Novak was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald on the signing of a new Comprehensive Strategic Framework agreement between Timor-Leste and the PRC. Novak explained that the agreement was not a surprise, and in fact “codifies a lot of things that were already happening between the two countries at the ground level. It’s also a reflection of Timor-Leste’s ‘friends with everybody’ approach to foreign policy.”