East Timor in Asean may entrench divisions, make ‘picking off, co-opting by big powers’ more likely

The tiny nation, which gets a lot of help from Australia and China, is set to become the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc

Analysts say it joining may make existing group tensions worse, amid China-US rivalry in region and the competition for ‘hearts and minds’

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with East Timor’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Adaljiza Magno during a meeting in East Timor in June. The tiny nation, which gets a lot of help from China and Australia, is set to become a member of Southeast Asia bloc Asean. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30am, 21 Nov 2022Updated: 8:40am, 21 Nov 2022

East Timor’s impending entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could yet rock the bloc’s boat and exacerbate strategic tensions faced by the regional body.

Existing divisions between the more and less developed economies in Asean may well become further entrenched, experts say.

On November 11, Asean agreed to allow East Timor to become the 11th member of the bloc, according to a statement released by summit host Cambodia.

It said the remaining formal steps to bring the tiny nation with a population of 1.3 million to full membership will be discussed at next year’s Asean summit.

Tan See Seng, a research adviser at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that given China-US rivalry and the competition for Southeast Asian “hearts and minds”, welcoming East Timor into Asean will only “compound its own strategic difficulties”.

“China’s influence on East Timor is clearly on the rise,” he said, adding that having the tiny nation join the bloc made sense as this would “better socialise” it to the grouping’s preference for neutrality.

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