Phnom Penh, Cambodia:
Southeast Asian leaders agreed on Friday to allow East Timor to join the 10-nation ASEAN regional bloc, according to a statement released by the summit’s host, Cambodia.
“We, the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations … agreed in principle to admit East Timor as the 11th member of ASEAN,” the statement said.
East Timor is the youngest country in Southeast Asia and gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 after 24 years of occupation.
At their meeting in Phnom Penh, regional leaders agreed to grant East Timor observer status and the right to attend ASEAN meetings and summits, the statement said.
The bloc will now draw up a roadmap outlining the criteria East Timor must meet before it gains full membership.
The former Portuguese colony is one of the poorest countries in the world and suffers from high inequality, malnutrition and unemployment.
President Jose Ramos-Horta has long campaigned for ASEAN membership and an application was first filed in 2011.
Ramos-Horta, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, won a second term in office in April, having previously served from 2007 to 2012.
Indonesia – which will take over ASEAN chairmanship from Cambodia in 2023 – had hoped East Timor could officially join ASEAN next year.
But Philippine deputy secretary for ASEAN affairs Dan Espiritu said the timeline for full membership was not clear.
“Not because we want to delay their entry, but we need to make sure they are really ready for the obligations and responsibilities,” he told reporters in Phnom Penh.
“We request ASEAN member states to grant full membership to East Timor by 2023, after 11 years of preparation,” the government of East Timor said in a statement, which also thanked the partners for their capacity-building efforts.
ASEAN started in 1967 as a bloc of five members and has gradually expanded, with Cambodia being the most recent addition in 1999.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
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