Summit of Southeast Asian nations kicks off in Malaysia with Timor-Leste joining as 11th member
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\nHeads of states convened in Malaysia as the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) opened Sunday, Anadolu Agency reported. The attending leaders welcomed Timor-Leste as its 11th member, marking the bloc\u2019s first expansion in 26 years.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is hosting the 47th summit, which runs through Tuesday. Malaysia is the chair of the bloc, which is the fifth time since 1967.<\/p>\n
At the opening ceremony at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, leaders attended a signing ceremony to officially admit Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, which first applied for membership in 2011 and was granted observer status in 2022.<\/p>\n
ASEAN, a regional organization founded in Bangkok on Aug. 8, 1967, consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is hosting leaders from ASEAN member states, along with leaders and top officials from the US, South Africa, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea and other key partners, for the summit under the theme, \u201cInclusivity and Sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump is attending the summit where, alongside Anwar, he will attend the signing of a peace accord between Cambodia and Thailand, which saw deadly border clashes in July.<\/p>\n
A nation of 1.3 million people, Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002 and is the first nation to join the bloc of Southeast Asian nations since Cambodia\u2019s admission in 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summit of Southeast Asian nations kicks off in Malaysia with Timor-Leste joining as 11th member ————————————- Heads of states convened in Malaysia as the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) opened Sunday, Anadolu Agency reported. The attending leaders welcomed Timor-Leste as its 11th member, marking the bloc\u2019s first expansion in 26 years. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[2934],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indonesia"],"yoast_head":"\n