East Timorese Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta is expected to sign an application for membership of the Association of South-East Asian Nation (ASEAN) at a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), scheduled for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 28.
The process of gaining ASEAN membership should take about five years, Horta was quoted by Indonesia's Antara News Agency as saying on July 22.
East Timor obtained ASEAN observer status in 2002 and started to attend the ARF in 2005, he added.
ASEAN members currently consist of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Source: VNA
