The application letter was presented by Da Costa to Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa representing the ASEAN chair.
Marty said Indonesia would soon convene a meeting of ASEAN member countries regarding Timor Leste`s application.
As to Indonesia`s stance toward the issue, Marty said Timor Leste was geographically part of Southeast Asia. "Geo-politically, geo-economically and geo-socio-culturally, Timor Leste`s future will be very much linked to the future of the Southeast Asia region," said the minister.
Based on ASEAN`s membership rules, an assessment would be carried out and meetings would be held to study Timor leste`s application. Later, based on a consensus among all ASEAN members, a decision would be taken on whether or not the application was accepted.
Right now Timor Leste was just setting up embassies in all ASEAN member countries. They so far already have four embassies, namely in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
During the Friday meeting, the two foreign ministers also discussed bilateral relations between Indonesia and Timor Leste. Marty said relationships between the two countries were accelerating and based on a determination to further develop and to further strengthen the relationship not only government-to- government but also people-to-people.
Meanwhile Minister Da Costa said the state of relations between Indonesia and Timor Leste was strong and solid. He also said Timor Leste was looking forward to further developing bilateral relations with Indonesia in every sector. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
