Thursday, 8 August 2019 - The resident ASEAN Embassies in Dili, namely Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand jointly organised an event to commemorate the 52nd Founding Anniversary of the ASEAN at the premise of the Royal Thai Embassy in Díli.
Around 250 guests including Head of Missions, representatives from Embassies and International Organisations, government officials, media and ASEAN citizens living and working in Díli attended the event. H.E. Dionísio Babo Soares, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation was the guest of honour. H.E. Dr. José Ramos-Horta, former President of Timor-Leste also attended the event.
H.E. Amb. Sahat Sitorus, Ambassador of Indonesia who is also the Dean of the ASEAN Head of Missions delivered the welcoming remarks. He highlighted the outstanding achievements of ASEAN for the past 52 years, among others, ASEAN combined gross domestic product value up to USD3.1 trillion, making it the 3rd largest economy in Asia and the 6th largest in the world. The new ASEAN Secretariat building in Jakarta also been officiated on that day. H.E. Sahat further congratulated H.E. Soares, who just recently concluded the ASEAN tour, which demonstrated the progress that Timor-Leste has achieved as part of its bid to join ASEAN.
In his speech, H.E. Soares mentioned that Timor-Leste has a great expectation to be part of ASEAN big family. He registered his appreciation to all 10 ASEAN Member States (AMS) as well as to the Secretary-General of ASEAN for the hospitality throughout his recent official visit. He added by saying that integration of Timor-Leste into ASEAN would remain as a key strategic priority for the country.