In a speech at the 56th summit, a first for Timor-Leste to participate as the bloc’s 11th member “in principle”, Gusmão said ASEAN has supported development and prosperity for the great benefit of the region and its people.“Bringing together such diversity of culture, history and religion, ASEAN has built a community of respect and tolerance. Southeast Asia is now a dynamic economic powerhouse that is looking to the future with great optimism,” he said. The summit was a test of Timor-Leste’s commitment to official membership of the 10-nation Southeast bloc, first applied over a decade ago.

“Following 24 years of struggle for independence, and another 21 years of a new struggle to build our democratic State and the foundations of a developed and sustainable Nation, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is still seeking to understand the principles that guided ASEAN to transform Southeast Asia into a community of Nations, where trust, friendship and cooperation are the values that hold together so many different countries,” he said.

“That is why Timor-Leste is a founding-member of an inter-governmental organisation, called ‘g7+’, that has a permanent Observer status in the United Nations, and fights for peace and development and, importantly, to build Democratic States that respect Human Rights and Democracy.”

Gusmão pointed to Timor-Leste’s achievement of democratic state that respects human rights and democracy, as demonstrated “so well in the peaceful and democratic participation in our recent Presidential and Parliamentary elections”.

President of the Republic Jose Ramos Horta told the summit on Monday it is Dili’s “destiny” to be part of ASEAN.