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Timor Leste wants to contribute, ‘not be burden’ to ASEAN
Timor Leste wants to contribute to ASEAN and not be a burden to it, one of the country’s high-ranking officials said recently, as Southeast Asia’s smallest economy waits for the regional grouping to determine next year whether to offer the country full-fledged membership
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span>Timor Leste wants to contribute to ASEAN and not be a burden to it, one of the country’s high-ranking officials said recently, as Southeast Asia’s smallest economy waits for the regional grouping to determine next year whether to offer the country full-fledged membership.
Timor Leste Secretary of State for Cooperatives Arsenio Pereira da Silva said on Saturday that his government was highly committed to joining the Southeast Asian trade bloc and that Dili would ensure its admission would not put a damper on one of the world’s fastest-growing regions.
“When our heroes were still fighting in the jungle [for independence], they envisioned that we were going to be part of ASEAN as well as other regional organizations,” he told The Jakarta Post at the Pacific Exposition event in Auckland, New Zealand.
“We have made preparations for [admission] a long time, but [...] this will depend on all ASEAN member states.”
ASEAN has kept Timor Leste waiting for eight years, ever since Dili submitted its application in 2011 under Indonesia’s chairmanship of the organization. And while Pereira insists the country had not set a specific timeline for its admission to ASEAN, he insists it wanted “to contribute to ASEAN and not be a burden”.
The most common reason shared among ASEAN member states for the postponement of Dili’s admission is skepticism over the country’s ability to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities as a member of the bloc, and that it lacks the human resources and capacity to attend hundreds of ASEAN meetings held every year.
Timor Leste, which celebrates 20 years of the restoration of independence this August, had already joined the ASEAN Regional Forum in 2005 and acceded in 2007 to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation — a prerequisite for countries to engage formally with ASEAN.
As part of his tour of Southeast Asia last week, Timor Leste Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Dionísio da Costa Babo Soares sought to allay fears arising from such criticism by highlighting the economic potential and significant progress his country was experiencing.
ASEAN is preparing to send “fact-finding missions” to the small island country in September and October in the hope of gathering proof of its readiness to join the group based on three previously commissioned feasibility studies on ASEAN Community pillars.
“Hopefully, with these fact-finding visits, a positive outcome can be pronounced at least by 2020 or 2021,” Babo Soares said in a recorded public lecture at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies last Monday.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Ambassador to Timor Leste Sahat Sitorus said it was high time for ASEAN to finally accept Timor Leste’s application, if not for its geographic proximity then for the possible geostrategic and geopolitical implications of its membership.
The call for ASEAN to admit Dili into the group comes against the backdrop of China making inroads in the wider region through its expansive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Sahat said that, while Indonesian companies had largely remained big players in Timor Leste’s development push, China had recently entered the market by trying to undercut the competition. “For instance, if there’s a billion-dollar project that Jakarta might allow [state-owned construction company Wijaya Karya] to bid at US$950 million, China will try to push it as far down as $700 million to $600 million,” he said on Saturday.
The envoy eluded to concerns surrounding a $1 billion plan to develop a new port in Beaco on Timor Leste’s southern coastline, which is slated to become the main avenue to supply goods for the construction of the Greater Sunrise liquefied natural (LNG) gas pipeline.
Should Timor Leste give the project to China, Sahat said the country might risk ending up like Sri Lanka, which failed to settle its debts under the BRI and had to agree to lease a port to a Chinese company for 99 years.
“If China wants to expand, no one can prevent it from building a military base [in Beaco],” he said. But if Timor Leste was a member of ASEAN, other member states would not allow for any military buildup, as Dili would be bound to regional treaties that ensure peace and security in the region. (tjs)
