Tempo.Co, Kemlu.Go.Id, Petir Garda B, Jakarta – ASEAN foreign ministers convinced for ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. The ACC meeting discussed ASEAN's institutional process prior to the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summit in Laos.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi utilizes the meeting to affirm Indonesia's full support for Timor Leste's integration process in ASEAN. She proposed three key steps.
First, establish a special support unit for Timor-Leste in the ASEAN Secretariat, to support the various milestones of the roadmap for Timor Leste's integration.
Second, the importance of focusing on institutional and technical capacity building, so Timor Leste can maintain an active role in ASEAN's Community Building process across all three pillars.
And lastly, increase Timor Leste's participation in ASEAN meetings. "I think it is time for Timor Leste to be involved in substantive discussions and in shaping ASEAN priorities," Retno said, as quoted from the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Previously, in 2023, Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta aimed for the country to become a full member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2025. He also said that Timor Leste's process to obtain full ASEAN member status has been going well so far.
Timor Leste was accepted in principle as the 11th member of ASEAN at the 2023 Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Since then, Timor Leste has ratified more than 50 instruments, agreements, and consensuses and has carried out more capacity-building training and expanded infrastructure networks to accommodate the needs and obligations of becoming an ASEAN member
Timor Leste President Ramos-Horta said ASEAN member countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, and Cambodia, have provided extraordinary support in capacity-building for the country.
At the Summit in Labuan Bajo in May 2023, ASEAN also adopted a roadmap for Timor Leste to become a full member of the organization by fulfilling the agreements or treaties in the three pillars of ASEAN, namely political security, economics, and socio-culture.