Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has requested to relax the criteria and requirements set for Timor-Leste in a bid to expedite the process for the country to become a full member of ASEAN by the end of this year, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan. He said that under the current regulations, there are 88 instruments that Timor-Leste needs to fulfill before becoming a full member of the regional bloc.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, out of the 88, there are 69 economic pillar instruments that Timor-Leste must comply with, which is a very challenging task for them. Therefore, ASEAN members agreed at the 45th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, last year to expedite the membership process for Timor-Leste, making it feasible and realisable, Mohamad stated during Question Time at the Dewan Negara.

Mohamad was responding to Senator Datuk Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli’s inquiry about the government’s plans to include Timor-Leste as an ASEAN member during its ASEAN chairmanship. He mentioned that in the recent ASEAN Economic Council Committee meeting in Desaru, Malaysia had also requested that some strict requirements be reviewed as they were outdated and could be relaxed without Timor-Leste having to meet them.

Last year, even though Timor-Leste was not a full member, it was allowed to participate in discussions in meetings but on the condition that they could not make decisions. As ASEAN Chair this year, Malaysia is taking the effort to expedite and to also request ASEAN country partners to consider Timor-Leste to be accepted, if not fully, if they meet 30 percent of the requirements first.

Malaysia also proposed giving Timor-Leste the flexibility to meet all the requirements in five to six years after becoming a full member. To assist in this process, Malaysia is contributing by establishing an ASEAN unit at the ASEAN secretariat in Jakarta, funded with an allocation of USD200,000 to help Timor-Leste achieve the process of meeting the requirements.

Furthermore, Malaysia, through the Malaysia Technical Cooperation Program (MTCP), has trained more than 300 officials from Timor-Leste and spent more than RM1 million to place them in ministries and agencies to understand the workings of being an ASEAN country when they are fully accepted as members of ASEAN.