Jakarta [Indonesia], February 4: Timor-Leste made a debut at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held here on Friday, marking a move closer towards its full membership in ASEAN.
Friday's agenda was the meeting session of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC), a part of the three-day ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta from Feb. 2 to Feb. 4.
Timor-Leste was represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation AdaljizaMagno.
The presence of the Timor-Leste delegation was the first time at the foreign ministerial level meeting of ASEAN, after the bloc agreed in principle to admit Timor-Leste as its 11th member in November 2022.
"It is an honor and privilege for me to be able to take part for the first time in a historic moment of the ACC meeting under Indonesian leadership," Magno said at the forum.
"We want to take this very opportune moment to thank all ASEAN member countries for their wise decision to accept us," she added.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Source: Xinhua