The
Singapore Embassy in Jakarta Thursday rebutted an article in the Jakarta Post
that said Singapore continued to reject Timor Leste's application to join
Asean.
In a letter to the newspaper, the embassy said
the article published Thursday was "completely inaccurate and misinformed,
particularly about Singapore's position on Timor Leste's application to join
Asean".
Deputy chief of mission Gerard Ho wrote:
"Singapore welcomes the interest of Timor Leste and other countries to
join Asean. Singapore sees this as an indication of confidence in the
centrality of Asean in the region, and its standing and credibility as an organisation,
which we have always supported."
The Jakarta Post report, headlined "Asean
to review Timor Leste's bid", said that during the grouping's foreign
ministers' meeting on Wednesday, "foreign ministers from Cambodia and
Malaysia directly questioned Singapore's insistence on rejecting Timor Leste's
bid".
This is not true, Ho wrote in the letter,
which was seen by Singapore media.
He explained that in fact, at the Asean
Coordinating Council meeting on Wednesday, "there was 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 implications on Asean".
Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam and
his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa had also made this point in their
remarks to reporters on Wednesday.
Ho added that the working group will assess
whether Timor Leste is able to meet the requirements of Article 6 of the Asean
Charter on the admission of new members, which relates to the obligations of
membership.
"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," he said.
Asean has affirmed Timor Leste's membership
bid, but is still working out the timing, as there are concerns over whether
the new nation could meet the obligations of a member.
The Jakarta Post article had also named
Singapore's foreign minister as Masagos Zulkifli.
Wrote Ho: "For the record, the name of
Singapore's minister for foreign affairs is K. Shanmugam."
News Desk
The Straits Times
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