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Indonesia to push Timor Leste membership in ASEAN at ministerial meeting in Malaysia

Xinhua, July 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Indonesian delegates would raise the issue of membership of Timor Leste in ASEAN during the 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia early next month, an Indonesian official said here on Thursday.

The Indonesian government would persistently attempt to include the new nation into the ASEAN membership, said M.I. Derry Aman, director at the Indonesian foreign ministry said.

"Indonesia will raise the issue of Timor Leste membership in ASEAN (at the meeting). It is time for the ASEAN member countries to consider the membership of Timor Leste," he said at his office.

Indonesia is the first country giving support to the membership as the new nation is located in the Southeast Asia region, according to Aman.

"Indonesia's commitment is clear that Timor Leste will be an ASEAN member country in the future," he revealed.

A study on the readiness of Timor Leste on the membership has been carrying out which will determine whether the new nation will be accepted into the ASEAN membership, according to him. Endi