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East Timor was formally admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Sunday in the group’s first expansion since the 1990s.
The unification of the region’s youngest and poorest nation – with just 1.4 million people – is being hailed as a symbolic step towards regional inclusion. East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, was a Portuguese Indonesia was colonized for more than four centuries before the 1975 invasion.
asean Membership gives East Timor access to the bloc’s free trade deals, investment opportunities and a broader regional market – vital to diversifying an economy long dependent on oil and gas.