East Timor finally received in-principle approval to hitch the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as its eleventh member state last November, greater than a decade after it first applied for full membership. ASEAN leaders met in Phnom Penh for the fortieth and forty first ASEAN Summits and related summits (2022).
Additionally, East Timor was granted observer status, enabling it to take part in all ASEAN meetings, including the summit’s plenary sessions.
Geopolitical analysts don’t rule out the chance that Jakarta could offer full membership to the last Southeast Asian country that was once often called Timor Timur and its former territory, as Indonesia takes over the ASEAN chairmanship this yr.
According to Gilang Kembara, a researcher on the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia would help East Timor align with ASEAN’s bureaucratic criteria within the hope that the country will join the organization on the summit later this yr.
Prof. Dr Azmi Hassan, a Malaysian geostrategist, agreed with Gilang that Timor-Leste may find a way to totally join ASEAN this yr as Indonesian President Joko Widodo is one in all the regional leaders who has agreed to the country’s membership.
Singapore, which initially opposed East Timor’s entry into ASEAN out of fear that it could burden the organization, has now modified its position and declared support for the country’s ASEAN membership basically, based on a senior fellow on the Nusantara Academy of Strategic Studies (NASR).
Source: New Straits Times
