ASEAN Photo Exhibit Opens at Timor-Leste’s State University

07 December 2017 DILI, TIMOR-LESTE – A photo exhibition featuring the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) was inaugurated on December 06 at 9:30 a.m. inside the campus of Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL), Timor-Leste’s lone state university.

The event, which was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, media, various Timorese officials, and students and staff of the university, was jointly organized by the five embassies of the ASEAN member states present in Dili, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, and the UNTL.

In his keynote speech on behalf of the ASEAN embassies, H.E. Abdulmaid Kiram Muin, Philippine Ambassador, said: “This exhibit is about our common story of bringing diverse peoples together into a single community.  We have managed to bring our differences and variety together - the collective quantity becoming greater than the sum of its parts.”

Timorese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Director General for ASEAN, Director Jorge Trindade Neves de Camoes expressed his opinion that the photo exhibit will give additional motivation to the university students to learn more about ASEAN in view of Timor-Leste’s objective of becoming an ASEAN member soon.

Director Camoes further said: “I highly encourage students and scholars to have a passion in deepening their knowledge of ASEAN.  Attempts to be a member of ASEAN should be our joint task.  As a sovereign State, we should prepare even more to ensure our readiness to become a full member of ASEAN in the future.”

After the program, the guests partook with the traditional food prepared by the participating ASEAN Embassies. END

For more information, visit www.dilipe.dfa.gov.ph.