East Timor, officially known as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia comprising the eastern half of the island of Timor, the Oecussi-Ambeno region (an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor) and the nearby islands of Pulau Atauro and Pulau Jaco. The world's newest independent country, it lies about 400 miles (640 km) northwest of Australia in the Lesser Sunda Islands at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago.

Colonised by Portugal in the sixteenth century, East Timor was known as Portuguese Timor for centuries. It was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, which occupied it until 1999. Both Tetum (the official language) and Indonesian are widely spoken in East Timor where Portuguese as official language is spoken in government and its administration only. The name 'Timor' derives from the Malay and Indonesian word for 'east'. The Portuguese name Timor-Leste and the unofficial Tetum name Timór Lorosa'e are sometimes used in English. Lorosa'e (the word for 'east' in Tetum) literally means 'rising sun'.