Opinion | Sat, Nov 19 2011 | page: 7
The Jakarta Post,
Your article on Nov. 17, 2011, "ASEAN to review Timor Leste's bid", is completely inaccurate and misinformed, particularly about Singapore's position on Timor Leste's application to join ASEAN.
Singapore welcomes the interest of Timor Leste and other countries in joining ASEAN. Singapore sees this as an indication of confidence in the centrality of ASEAN in the region, and its standing and credibility as an organization, which we have always supported.
It is not true that "Cambodia and Malaysia directly questioned Singapore's insistence on rejecting Timor Leste's bid". In fact, at the ASEAN Coordinating Council meeting on Nov. 16, 2011, there was a consensus on Singapore's proposal to establish an ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group to discuss all relevant aspects related to the application by Timor Leste, as well as its possible implication on ASEAN.
The Working Group will assess whether Timor Leste is able to meet the requirement of Article 6 of the ASEAN Charter on the Admission of New Members. Moreover, there was also consensus among the foreign ministers on how this would be presented to the public in the chair's statement of the 19th ASEAN Summit.
For the record, the name of Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs is K Shanmugam.
Gerard Ho
Deputy Chief of Mission
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