DILI, 02 july 2022 (TATOLI) – Timor-Leste is delighted to receive the ASEAN Fact-Finding Mission on the ASEAN Social-Cultural Community (ASCC) on 6-9 july 2022 to assess Timor-Leste’s technical readiness for acceding to ASEAN.
The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Pillar FFM delegation will be led by the Senior Official of the Social-Cultural Community (SOCA) of Cambodia as the ASEAN 2022 Chair, SOCA Leaders from all ASEAN Member States, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, and the ASEAN Secretariat.
The ASCC FFM visit is an opportunity for ASEAN to conduct an assessment on the ASCC pillar and to evaluate Timor-Leste’s readiness to become a member of ASEAN. The Fact-Finding Mission is intended to observe the real condition on the ground concerning social-cultural related issues.
The ASCC FFM is one of the two remaining pillars of the ASEAN fact-finding mission. The ASEAN Economic Community Pillar (AEC) will visit Timor-Leste at the end of july 2022. While the ASEAN Political-Security Pillar community conducted the FFM in september 2019.
The delegation will meet with Timor-Leste authorities. So, on the first day, the delegation will receive a briefing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and on the second day, the ASCC delegation will meet with the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Vice Minister, and Acting Minister for Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion of Timor-Leste. The delegation will also conduct site visits to several institutions corresponding to the ASEAN Social-Cultural pillar sectoral bodies.
Timor-Leste currently has diplomatic missions in all ASEAN Member States. In addition, Timor-Leste is actively participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meetings since 2005. Furthermore, Timor-Leste is a signatory to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) since 2007 and over the last two (2) years has been actively participating in ASEAN non-policy-making activities.
Timor-Leste welcomes the two remaining ASEAN Fact-Finding Missions on ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community and ASEAN Economic Community and looks forward to a clear outcome and a positive decision from the ASEAN Member States on the accession of Timor-Leste.
Journalist: José B De Sá
Editor: Nelia Borges
