00:00Dr. Swee, with the writing of the next year in ASEAN,
00:04are we going to see a new chapter in the history of Timor-Leste in ASEAN?
00:11Timor-Leste has been a developing country for several years.
00:17The effort to make Timor-Leste as a full member of ASEAN is indeed being done
00:24and is being accelerated in our summit.
00:32One of our agendas is to see, on a best effort basis,
00:39whether Timor-Leste will be accepted and acceded to ASEAN.
00:45There is a lot of documentation that needs to be done,
00:50such as treaty, TAC, Treaty of Unity, and cooperation.
00:55But most of the documents are based on the economy.
01:00And we have asked the economy to look at and study,
01:05if possible, to narrow down the list of requirements.
01:12Because for me, there are ASEAN members who have not yet reached their full potential.
01:22Why not give that leeway to Timor-Leste to become a full member of ASEAN?
01:32That is for the good of ASEAN.
01:34When we have Timor-Leste, it will force ASEAN to become a bloc,
01:40rather than a single country.
01:42Do you think that will happen?
01:45I think it will happen on a best effort basis.
01:48We will try.
01:50Because whatever decision is made by ASEAN members,
01:55it has to be on a consensus basis.
01:57It is not a chairman's call,
02:01but it is based on consensus.
02:03And consensus is important.
02:05That is the condition.
02:07So you just want to clarify that there is no consensus
02:11between ASEAN members and Timor-Leste members?
02:17It has not been brought forward yet.
02:19We have not put it as an agenda yet.
02:22We are still working on it.
02:25On a national basis.
02:27But this SOM level, Senior Officers' Meeting,
02:30gave feedback that this is what Timor-Leste needs to do.
02:36That is why we, as leaders,
02:38we have given a view that,
02:41as I said earlier,
02:43there are 86 documents on cluster economy,
02:48but there are only 60 on cluster economy.
02:51Why not cluster economy,
02:54the operational level of SOM needs to be looked at
02:57so that we can compress it,
02:59or reduce it a little.
03:01And after tomorrow, we will share it.
03:03In five years' time, you have to comply with everything.
03:07Or in 10 years, 5 years.
03:09We will bring it forward.
03:11But this has not yet been put as an agenda in ASEAN terms.
03:16So the question of consensus or not,
03:19that has not been raised yet.
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