Malaysia : Opening ceremony of ASEAN’s 47th Summit and Asia’s youngest and poorest country Timor Leste has been admitted as the Association’s 11th member.
This development comes after 14 years from the time when the country applied for the membership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the first time in 2011.
The aspiration of becoming a full-time ASEAN member thrived among the country’s leadership long before that. Timor Leste’s President, Jose Ramos-Horta – who also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, first expressed the desire of his country joining ASEAN in 1970s.
In a statement on social app X, ASEAN announced Timor Leste’s membership by listing the key developments and landmark moments that led to it. “This achievement is the result of years of close cooperation between ASEAN and Timor-Leste.”
After formally applying for membership in 2011, all ASEAN members agreed in principle to allow Timor Leste as the eleventh member in 2022. Since then, the country assumed observer status in the organization.
The next year, the Roadmap for Timor-Leste’s Full Membership was adopted by ASEAN. After formally entering various legal instruments and fulfilling multiple requirements, the membership was officially announced.
Sohail Majeed is a Special Correspondent at The Diplomatic Insight. He has twelve plus years of experience in journalism & reporting. He covers International Affairs, Diplomacy, UN, Sports, Climate Change, Economy, Technology, and Health.
