- Title: East Timor PM says country won't join ASEAN without peace deal in Myanmar
- Date: 7th August 2023
- Summary: JAKARTA, INDONESIA (AUGUST 7, 2023) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** HORTA ENTERING EVENT VENUE HORTA AMONG EVENT PARTICIPANTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) EAST TIMOR PRESIDENT JOSE RAMOS HORTA SAYING: "We are not leaving an organisation or refusing to join because a conflict within the organisation is not resolved." TIMOR LESTE MILITARY EMBLEM EAST TIMOR MILITARY OFFICER (SOUNDBITE) (English) EAST TIMOR PRESIDENT JOSE RAMOS HORTA SAYING: "Ideally for me and for Prime Minister Gusmao, we will join (ASEAN) latest in 2025." HORTA LEAVING EVENT
- Embargoed: 21st August 2023 12:27
- Keywords: ASEAN East Timor Jose Ramos Horta Myanmar Xanana Gusmao junta president prime minister
- Location: DILI, EAST TIMOR /JAKARTA, INDONESIA
- City: DILI, EAST TIMOR /JAKARTA, INDONESIA
- Country: East Timor
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA002281407082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: East Timor's recently-elected prime minister Xanana Gusmao said on Thursday (August 3) his country won't join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before the bloc resolves the crisis in Myanmar.
Gusmao made the comments following a meeting with East Timor president Jose Ramos Horta, who said on Monday (August 7) he was hoping his country would join ASEAN by 2025 the latest.
ASEAN agreed in principle to allow East Timor to join the bloc last year, more than a decade after the country had requested membership.
ASEAN, which includes Myanmar among its 10 members, has pushed, without success, for the implementation of a five-point peace plan agreed with the junta shortly after a coup in early 2021.
Myanmar's generals have been barred from the bloc's meetings over their failure to honour a two-year-old peace deal, which has tested ASEAN's unity.
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