East Timor wants to join ASEAN, SPF: Ramos Horta
East Timor wants to join ASEAN, SPF: Ramos Horta
BANGKOK (AFP): East Timor will seek membership of both the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South
Pacific Forum (SPF) after it gains full independence, leader Jose
Ramos Horta said on Friday.
He said East Timor, which is undergoing a transition to
nationhood after voting last year to end 24 years of Indonesian
rule, would like to join ASEAN for "geographic and strategic
reasons."
But he also said that the world's newest nation has
"tremendous affinities with the countries of the South Pacific,
so I hope we could be able to join both."
Ramos Horta, tipped to be East Timor's foreign minister when a
government is constituted after two to three years of UN
supervision, said he would appeal to both organizations to allow
his country to join.
He is in Bangkok as an official guest of the Thai government,
which hosts the annual ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting next
week.
The Nobel laureate said the issue of membership will be put to
the East Timorese people in a referendum after elections for a
parliament next year.
"But if we have to make a choice, I believe the people of East
Timor will prefer to join ASEAN," he told reporters.
Ramos Horta has criticized ASEAN in the past, when Indonesia
dominated the grouping, but Friday praised its support during the
transition period.
"ASEAN countries so far have given us tremendous assistance
within their limitations," he said.
Command of the UN peacekeeping forces in East Timor passed
this week from the Philippines to Thailand -- both ASEAN members.
Other member nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.
It still unclear whether East Timor's membership will be on
the agenda during the ministerial meeting here.
But in February, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar
said ASEAN had no plans yet to accord East Timor observer status.
"When the time comes, we will talk about it. Let us not try to
prepare them, let them prepare themselves," Syed Hamid said.
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has said he will
support East Timor's entry into ASEAN should its leaders decide
to apply.