For Timor-Leste president, Asean membership a lifelong dream

PHNOM PENH – It was as a budding diplomat in the 1970s that Mr 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 South-east Asia’s economic and political bloc.

• The Straits Times

Almost half a century later, his vision appears set to be realised, with 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.

Mr Ramos-Horta, 72, who left retirement this year to clinch the country’s presidency for a second time, told Reuters that the dream has been long-held…

• For Timor-Leste…