NOVEMBER 11. /TASS/. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed to accept East Timor as the organization's 11th member, according to an official statement published on Friday.

"We <...> agreed in principle to admit Timor Leste to be the 11th member of ASEAN," the statement said. According to it, next steps would include a "roadmap for full membership" of the half-island nation in the organization so it could take part in the next year's summit.

East Timor is a former Portuguese colony that was subsequently dependent on Indonesia. In 1999, the majority of the inhabitants of this territory voted at a referendum for independence and Timor became an independent state.

ASEAN was founded on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok by five Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Later, five more countries of the region joined the organization, namely, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. East Timor has special observer status in ASEAN, and in March 2011 it formally applied to join the association.