ASEAN agrees to admit Timor- Leste as its 11th member

Tags: Summits International News

The 10 nations group Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed in principle to admit Timor- Leste as its 11th member. This was declared by the ASEAN after its summit meeting held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on 11 November 2022 Timor- Leste applied for membership of the ASEAN in 2011.

The other members of ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Timor- Leste will be initially granted an observer status at a high level ASEAN meeting and it will take years before it becomes a full member of the ASEAN group.

The country would be the first new member of the regional grouping in more than two decades, since Cambodia was admitted in 1999.

Timor- Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta welcomed the decision, saying a membership would strengthen wider diplomatic relations with ASEAN's partners and will help attract more foreign direct investment in the country.

Timor- Leste 

It was earlier called East Timor and was a Portuguese colony till 1975 .After the Portuguese left it was occupied by Indonesia. The people of Timor- Leste waged a freedom struggle to gain Independence from Indonesia.

In the 1999 United Nations supervised referendum the people of Timor-Leste voted for Independence from Indonesia.

It was officially recognised as an independent country by the United Nations in 2022, making it Asia's youngest country.

Capital of Timor- Leste: Dilli

Currency: Dollar

President:  Jose Ramos-Horta