Timor-Leste will also be granted observer status at high-level ASEAN meetings and can participate in all meetings, the bloc said in a statement on Friday, after regional leaders met in Phnom Penh for a summit.

“We…agreed in principle to admit Timor-Leste to be the 11th member of ASEAN,” the statement said, adding that next steps would include a“roadmap for full membership” to be submitted at next year’s summit.

Timor-Leste would be the first new member of the regional grouping  in more than two decades, since Cambodia was admitted in 1999.

Timor-Leste President of the Republic Jose Ramos-Horta welcomed the decision, saying a membership would open up his country to wider diplomatic relations with ASEAN’s partners, potentially more foreign direct investment, as well as give Timorese wider travel access within the region.