In Dili, China's Defence Minister Dong Jun met with Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta to formalize a deepening military partnership between Beijing and one of Southeast Asia's youngest nations. China praised Timor-Leste's strategic autonomy even as it extended an invitation to draw the small nation closer into its defense orbit — a paradox that speaks to the quiet choreography of great-power competition. Ramos-Horta, in turn, reaffirmed the one-China policy and voiced hope for a South China Sea defined by peace rather than rivalry, threading a careful path between aspiration and alignment.