Current Dynamics in Southeast Asia : New Perspectives in Political Economy and Comparative Politics

Research Seminar on the New Political Economy of Timor-Leste

Séminaire

28 November 2025, 2 pm – 4:15 pm
Inalco, Maison de la recherche, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris

Hybrid event
Zoom link : https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/98824166498?...
Meeting ID : 988 2416 6498
Password : CuDy2025

The date of the 28 Nov. was not picked by accident since that day Timor-Leste will commemorate the 50th anniversary of its first declaration of independence in 1975.

Christine Cabasset will participate to the bi-monthly seminar organised by CASE-Inalco Paris, CERI Sciences-Po Paris, and ACE Lund University, with Lili Chen and Bernardo Ribeiro de Almeida for the special session on the New Political Economy of Timor-Leste. She will contribute with a presentation entitled “2025 Accession of Timor-Leste to ASEAN : Grounds, Stakes and Prospects of Timor-Leste’s Long Quest for ASEAN”.

Three years after its in-principle approval and fourteen years after its official application to join the regional organisation, Timor-Leste is about to become ASEAN’s eleventh member state. This accession marks both the end of a long political quest to join ASEAN and the beginning of a new journey to fully benefit from its membership. On 28 November, Timor-Leste will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first declaration of independence. Against this background, revisiting the foundations, challenges, and prospects of its ASEAN accession provides an excellent opportunity to situate the country within Southeast Asia’s historical, geopolitical, and economic contexts. Interestingly, throughout the fourteen-year waiting period, most of the arguments cited as manifestations of ASEAN member states’ reluctance to accept Timor-Leste into the grouping were economic in nature. This presentation explores what we see as the main political and geopolitical factors. It also highlights the significant ongoing downturn in Timor-Leste’s relations with the ten other ASEAN member states. Today, Indonesia and Singapore are among the main supporters of Timor-Leste, notably through ASEAN-related training programmes for East Timorese diplomats and civil servants, as well as economic investments.

All informations about this event and abstracts are online : https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/fr/e...