East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has said the country would reconsider its goal of joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) if the bloc is unable to find a resolution to the conflict in Myanmar.
He was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying his country, which is also known as Timor-Leste, “will not be joining the ASEAN if ASEAN cannot convince the military junta in Myanmar [to end the conflict].” Late last year, leaders from the bloc agreed “in principle” to admit the island state as its 11th member.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has turned a deaf ear to repeated calls by ASEAN for his regime to implement the Five-Point Consensus the bloc agreed on two years ago.
East Timor has shown support for Myanmar’s anti-regime movement. On July 1, Dili officially invited Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) to the swearing-in of the new East Timor government, and at last year’s United Nations General Assembly, the Timorese president asked world leaders why they were not helping Myanmar the way they are helping Ukraine.
The invitation to the July swearing-in ceremony—at which the East Timor president even accepted a portrait of jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from NUG Foreign Minister Daw Zin Mar Aung—made East Timor the first country to invite the NUG to a national-level event as the legitimate government of Myanmar. Angered by the move, the junta’s Foreign Ministry on July 5 summoned the chargé d’affaires at East Timor’s embassy in Yangon to Naypyitaw and complained about the invitation.
The ministry told the diplomat the junta considers the NUG a terrorist organization, and that invitation to or communication with NUG representatives “abets terrorism and encourages violence in the country, and infringes international agreements related to combating terrorism.” The ministry also called on the East Timor government to refrain from making any form of contact with such “terrorist groups” and their representatives.
Far from being deterred, on July 6, East Timor’s prime minister invited Daw Zin Mar Aung for another meeting. And East Timor again vocally criticized the regime after Min Aung Hlaing extended military rule for another six months on July 31.
The former Portuguese colony was occupied by Indonesia for more than two decades. In 2002, it became a sovereign state following a UN-sponsored popular referendum.
