Timor-Leste To Be Made Full Member Of ASEAN On Oct 26 - PM Anwar

SERI ISKANDAR, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today confirmed that Timor-Leste will be officially made a full member of ASEAN on Oct 26.

Anwar, who is also the ASEAN Chairman, said Malaysia, through the Foreign Ministry, is working hard to ensure that Timor-Leste is accepted as a permanent member of the regional bloc.

“We supported (Timor Leste) from the beginning but recently, we have been working hard to ensure that Timor-Leste is accepted as a permanent member of ASEAN.

“Allahamdulilah with the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Oct 26, Timor-Leste will officially become a permanent member,” he said at the ‘Anwar Meeting with Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) Students’ programme at its Chancellery in Seri Iskandar here, today.

Also present were Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad, Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar and UTP president Mohamed Firous Asnan.

The 47th ASEAN Summit is scheduled to be held from Oct 26 to 28 in Kuala Lumpur with the presence of influential world leaders including US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as heads of government of ASEAN countries and dialogue partners.

In the Joint Statement of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the 58th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on July 9, ministers expressed their commitment to support Timor-Leste in accelerating its participation in ASEAN's major economic agreements to facilitate full integration into the regional bloc.

Timor-Leste, the youngest country in Southeast Asia, applied for ASEAN membership in 2011, nine years after achieving independence on May 20 2002.

In February, Malaysia announced a contribution of US$200,000 to the Timor-Leste Unit at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta to accelerate the full membership process, as well as providing technical training through the Malaysia Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP), which has trained 319 Timor-Leste officials in various fields to date.

-- BERNAMA