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Tears as East Timor completes journey into Asean: ‘this is history’

When the red, black and yellow flag of East Timor was hoisted alongside the colours of its new Southeast Asian peers inside the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Sunday, several Timorese journalists in the media gallery broke into tears.

After more than a decade of waiting since it first applied in 2011, the small half-island nation – Asia’s newest country – on Sunday formally joined Asean as its 11th member.

The ceremony at the 47th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, hosted by Malaysia where leaders gathered to discuss trade, regional security and how to keep the bloc united amid intensifying power rivalries between China and the United States, fulfils a burning ambition for the country to find belonging inside a wider regional community.

“For us, this is history,” Andre Paulo, a local East Timor broadcaster, told This Week in Asia. “We waited so long to stand with the other nations in this region. It’s a victory for our people.”

Video of the media contingent from his country wiping away their tears went viral on social media, while East Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao gave a moving acceptance speech.

Gusmao attends the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Known officially as Timor-Leste, East Timor became the first new member to join Asean since Cambodia in 1999.

Social Media Asia Editor