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View all search resultsASEAN should aim for South China Sea of peace, Timor-Leste president says
Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta speaks to The Jakarta Post about the future of ASEAN and the challenges ahead for the regional bloc.
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Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta (left) and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn talk on Aug. 1, 2025, at the ASEAN Secretariat in South Jakarta. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
O
n the sidelines of his recent visit to Jakarta on an invitation from the Megawati Institute, alongside 10 other Nobel laureates and four Turing Award winners, Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta sat down with The Jakarta Post’s Dwi Atmanta and contributor Yophiandi Kurniawan to discuss ASEAN’s future and the challenges ahead. The following is an excerpt from the interview.
Question: You once joked that joining ASEAN was more difficult than going to heaven. What did you actually mean by that?
Answer: Well, in the sense that, of course, I was being sarcastic. It is really good of ASEAN that there is such a high demand on the applicant country to fulfill certain criteria laid out in the three ASEAN pillars: political security, economic and sociocultural.
Besides that, of course, we must accede to numerous treaties, treaties that we have to accede to anyway, whether we join ASEAN or the WTO. Even if you are outside the WTO framework, there are trading partners who follow those trade rules and will expect you to abide by the provisions of WTO treaties.
But that is not the only thing. One challenge is acceding to the treaties; another is adapting our laws and regulations to their requirements, because treaties prevail over national laws. Any domestic law that contradicts treaty provisions must be amended to conform with the treaty.
That also requires a lot of effort in developing our human capital, which we have been doing since at least 2009, when we began earning revenue from oil and gas. We were able to set aside tens of millions of dollars to send our brightest minds to select universities around the world.
The progress has been impressive. By the time ASEAN agreed in principle, our level of development was ahead of where Cambodia was when it joined ASEAN.
