November 14, 2022
PHNOM PENH – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed in principle to admit Timor Leste as the group’s 11th member, the bloc said in a statement on Friday.
The half-island nation will also be granted observer status at high-level ASEAN meetings, the bloc said after regional leaders met in Phnom Penh for a summit.
“We…agreed in principle to admit Timor Leste to be the 11th member of ASEAN,” the statement said, adding that next steps would include a “roadmap for full membership” to be submitted at next year’s summit.
The bloc will now draw up a roadmap setting out the criteria Timor Leste must hit before being granted full membership.
The former Portuguese colony is one of the poorest countries in the world and is grappling with high levels of inequality, malnourishment and unemployment.
President Jose Ramos-Horta has long campaigned for ASEAN membership and an application was first submitted 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 takes over the ASEAN chair from Cambodia in 2023 — hopes East Timor can officially join the ASEAN family next year.
ASEAN began as a five-member bloc in 1967 and has gradually expanded, with Cambodia the most recent addition in 1999.
The East Timorese voted for independence from a brutal occupation by neighbouring Indonesia in a 1999 UN-supervised referendum, and the country was officially recognised by the United Nations in 2002, making it Asia’s youngest democracy.
The resource-rich country of 1.3 million people immediately started the process of accession to ASEAN, but only formally applied for membership in 2011.