KUALA LUMPUR — Timor-Leste is a step closer to fulfilling its longstanding wish to join the Southeast Asian regional bloc and could become its 11th member state by October, Malaysia’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
Mohamad Hasan said on the sidelines ahead of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur that Dili “has made meaningful progress in implementing a roadmap” for it to join.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is one of the world’s poorest countries and some concerns remain around whether it could participate meaningfully in ASEAN’s development agenda.
However, the bloc’s foreign ministers voiced “strong support for Timor-Leste’s full…