It was as a budding diplomat in the 1970s that Jose Ramos-Horta, a man who would go on to win the Nobel prize for his fight for East Timor's independence, first raised the idea of his country joining Southeast Asia's economic and political bloc.
Almost half a century later, his vision appears set to be realised, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announcing on Friday that it has agreed in principle to admit East Timor, officially known as Timor Leste, as the group's 11th member.
