Op-Ed: “Timor-Leste at the Crossroads: What Dual ASEAN–OACPS Membership Means for the EU”

With its accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (‘ASEAN’), Timor-Leste became the first country to be a member of both ASEAN and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (‘OACPS’). Since the EU has its own distinct approach to both organisations, Timor-Leste has created a unique situation. While Timor-Leste already applied for ASEAN membership in 2011, there is no indication that particular effort was made to keep both regimes mutually compatible. For instance, trade relations between the EU and OACPS countries are supposed to be regulated by Economic Partnership Agreements (‘EPAs’), while those between the EU and ASEAN are intended to be regulated by a Free Trade Agreement (‘FTA’) at some point in the f