MOSCOW, Aug 7 Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão stated that East Timor would not join ASEAN if the countries of Southeast Asia could not resolve the situation in Myanmar.
It was previously reported that the leaders of the ASEAN member countries adopted a roadmap for the entry of the state of East Timor into the regional bloc as its eleventh member.
«If ASEAN fails to reach an agreement with the military government of Myanmar, then I can say that East Timor cannot yet trust this association, this is the government's position,» Prime Minister Gusmão said after meeting with East Timor's President José Ramos-Ortoy.
According to the Indonesian newspaper Jakarta Post, the position of Prime Minister of East Timor was also transferred to UN Secretary General António Guterres.
The military came to power in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, using the constitutional mechanism for changing power in the event of a threat to the country's national security. The transfer of power was carried out on the basis of accusations made by the military that the government of the National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, rigged the results of the 2020 parliamentary elections. Civic leaders were arrested and later sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges of corruption, violations of the state of emergency during the coronavirus pandemic, and violations of the law on state secrets. After the military suppressed the anti-government protests that began in the country, some of the opposition political groups turned to armed resistance to the authorities.