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Politics
Rebecca Strating, Director, La Trobe Asia and Associate Professor, La Trobe University, La Trobe University

ASEAN leaders give 'in-principle' support for Timor-Leste's membership. What does this actually mean?

ASEAN Timor TimorLeste Indonesia
Kith Serey/EPA/AAP

On Friday, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s member states provided a statement announcing “in-principle” support for Timor-Leste to be admitted as its 11th member. So does this mean Timor-Leste’s long wait to become a member of ASEAN is finally over? The short answer is not quite.

It is a positive development that all 10 ASEAN states - Cambodia (current ASEAN chair), Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Laos and Vietnam - appear to have agreed to the move. However, the statement was unclear about when and how Timor-Leste would achieve full membership.

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