Dr. José Ramos-Horta attends the asean ministerial meetings in Cambodia

Wednesday, June 12, 2003

After the working visit with the Prime Minister, Dr. Mari Alkatiri, in Jakarta, the Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, will flight to Phnom Penh with Mr. Roberto Soares Cabral, Director General for Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation to attend the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from June 16-18, 2003

"The issue that we will seek to clarify or to raise in this meeting will be mostly of bilateral nature with many of our friends in ASEAN or with the others countries as a member of the ARF. We don’t have any specific issue at this stage besides continuing to inform our ASEAN friends and the others regarding the development in Timor-Leste and our strong intention to seek Observer Status in ASEAN as well as full membership in ARF. We have a clear indication from many countries that they support Timor-Leste’s full membership in ARF", said Dr. Ramos-Horta.

This is the second time for Timor-Leste after May 20, 2002. Timor-Leste is attending the meeting as a guest to the Standing Committee of ASEAN. Timor-Leste has attended the previous ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Brunei Darussalam and Bangkok, Thailand, before May 20, 2002.

"In regards to the Observer Status and the future membership of Timor-Leste in ASEAN, there has not been yet any clear answer from ASEAN. This has to do with the fact that article 18 of the Founding Charter of ASEAN make reference to Ten ASEAN Southeast Asian Countries. No one thought back that in the late sixties when ASEAN was founded that by 2002 there will be a new independence state called Timor-Leste. So it means that the ASEAN countries would have to amend article 18 in order to accommodate Timor-Leste before the issue of our Observer Status and membership can be properly considered. However Timor-Leste is part of Southeast Asia, therefore consideration to accord the status of observer to ASEAN should be based on paragraph two which says "It should be open for accession by other states in Southeast Asia", not paragraph tree of article 18 of the Treaty Amity and Cooperation. Unfortunately this might also take for some time. In any case Timor-Leste is not yet ready to be a member of ASEAN because our economy is still very weak, our institution are new while membership in ASEAN create a lots of obligation including financial ones", added Dr. Ramos-Horta.

After the working visit in Jakarta and before continuing his flight to Phnom Penh, Senior Minister will spend the weekend in Singapore to give a speech about "External Security Challenges to Timor-Leste" Friday, on June 13, 2003 at Traders Hotel.

"I do not feel that Timor-Leste has serious external security threat. The remnants of the militias still living in west Timor do not pose a serious threat to Timor-Leste independence sovereignty and territorial integrity. What they can constitute is more emotional issues because their activities are criminal nature not political but Timor-Leste share the same concern with the Indonesia and the other South East Asia Countries in regard to the threat on Islamic fundamentalism from Al-Qaeda or Jammah Islamyiah . In this regard we are seeking to cooperate with countries like Indonesia, USA on how to enhance Timor-Leste’s intelligence capabilities, intelligence gathering capabilities as well as each security’s forces to deal with any potential threat coming from international terrorism or organize crimes".

Dr. Ramos-Horta and Mr. Roberto Cabral will return to Dili by July 2nd, 2003.