The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed in principle to admit East Timor as the group’s 11th member, the 10 member-bloc said in a statement, more than a decade after the country requested membership.

Highlights:

1. The half-island nation, officially called Timor Leste, will also granted observer status at high-level ASEAN meetings.
2. The country is the first new member of the regional grouping in more than two decades, since Cambodia was admitted in 1999.

What is ASEAN?

1. Founded on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand.
2. Its member states are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. East Timor was added as a new member of this regional grouping.

East Timor and ASEAN

1. East Timor started applying for ASEAN membership in 2011.
2. The ASEAN decided to admit the island nation as its 11^th member more than a decade after Timor-Leste requested membership.
3. This decision was made at Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, where the 40^th and 41^st ASEAN and related summits officially began recently.
4. East Timor was granted observer status at ASEAN meetings, including summit plenaries, until it is formally inducted into the regional bloc.

About East Timor

1. East Timor province remained in Portuguese possession until 1975.
2. Timor Leste or East Timor is a half-island nation in the eastern Lesser Sunda Islands.
3. It is situated at the southern extreme of the Malay Archipelago.
4. It occupies the eastern half of the Island of Timor.
5. It is bounded by the Timor Sea to the southeast, the Wetar Strait to the north, the Ombai Strait to the northwest and the western Timor (part of Indonesian territory) to southwest.

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East Timor:11th member,East Timor:11th member