KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) \u2014 East Timor’s prime minister pledged Sunday that his country would be a productive member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as it was formally admitted to the bloc in its first expansion since the 1990s.<\/p>\n
After the flag of East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, was added to the other 10 on the stage at a formal ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao told the other leaders that \u201ctoday, history is made.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the people of Timor Leste this is not only a dream realized but a powerful affirmation of our journey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The integration of the region\u2019s youngest and poorest nation \u2014 with just 1.4 million people \u2014 is being hailed as a symbolic step for regional inclusivity.<\/p>\n
The little-known nation wedged between Indonesia and Australia was a Portuguese colony for over four centuries before Indonesia\u2019s 1975 invasion.<\/p>\n
It struggles with high levels of unemployment and malnutrition, and 42% of the population lives below the national poverty line. Nearly two-thirds of the country\u2019s citizens are under 30 years old, making youth job creation a high priority.<\/p>\n
Its major source of government revenues comes from the oil and gas industry but with resources quickly becoming depleted it is looking to diversify.<\/p>\n
ASEAN membership gives East Timor access to the bloc\u2019s free trade deals, investment opportunities and a broader regional market.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us this new beginning brings immense opportunity in trade, investment, education and the digital economy, \u2014 we are ready to learn, innovate and uphold good government,\u201d Gusmao said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the end of a journey, this is a beginning of an inspiring new chapter. \u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) \u2014 East Timor’s prime minister pledged Sunday that his country would be a productive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,60,11362,11363,38,10222,11364,50,301],"class_list":["post-15173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-business","tag-east-timor-asean-first-expansion","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-international-trade","tag-military-occupations","tag-politics","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}