DILI, 04 March 2025 (TATOLI) – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Bendito dos Santos Freitas met with his counterpart Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sugiono reporting on the progress of Timor-Leste’s accession to ASEAN.
The meeting was held at the MFA Pancacila building, Jakarta, as part of the agenda of visits by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Bendito Freitas to ASEAN Member Nations with the aim of strengthening diplomatic relations and bilateral cooperation with ASEAN Member States.
At the aforementioned meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Sugiono declared that the Government of Indonesia has always given maximum support to Timor-Leste, when in 2011, Timor-Leste began to submit its candidacy to be a member of ASEAN.
“We all know that since 2011, previous governments and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of those governments have expressed maximum support for Timor-Leste’s candidacy to be an integral part of this Regional Organization”, stated Minister Bendito in a statement released today.
The Government of Indonesia also expresses its willingness to support Timor-Leste through human resources capacity building for public servants, to be offered by the ASEAN Secretariat based in Jakarta.
At the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, held in November 2022, Member States agreed that in principle Timor-Leste was considered an observer member of ASEAN to be able to actively participate in all ASEAN-related meetings.
Thus, with the aforementioned visit, it will be possible to further strengthen Timor-Leste’s relationship with Indonesia, especially with the government that always expresses the desire to provide maximum support and the desire to see Timor-Leste able to be a member of the ASEAN family.
Meanwhile, the delegation that accompanied Minister Bendito Freitas at the aforementioned meeting was made up of the Ambassador of Timor-Leste to Indonesia, Roberto Soares, the Head of the MFAC Office, Filomeno Rómulo Lay, the Director General of Asia and Oceania Affairs, Marcos da Costa and others. While the Indonesian delegation was made up of Ambassador Abdul Kadir, Director General for Asia-Pacific and African Affairs, Mr. Mirza, the Director of Southeast Asian Affairs and others.
TATOLI
