Timor Leste President José Ramos-Horta thanked the Philippines for its support to his country's goal to be a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In his opening statement in his bilateral meeting with President Marcos in Malacañan, Horta extended to Marcos his gratitude for being among the first countries to support Timor Leste's bid to join the ASEAN bloc.

"[Y]ou have been among the very first countries to support our aspiration to join ASEAN," Horta told Marcos before they started their bilateral talks on Friday morning, Nov. 10.

"We are now working round the clock to fulfill, implement milestones, and we feel confident that we could join a place between myself and our Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, we have established for ourselves. 2025, we should be ready to fully be a member of ASEAN," Horta added.

The Philippines has been supporting Timor Leste's application to be the 11th member state of ASEAN. Marcos, during his participation at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Indonesia, reiterated the country's support for Timor Leste's endeavor.

The Timor Leste president also expressed gratitude to the Philippines for supporting the foreign country even before its independence.

"The Philippines has been in the forefront, way back  before independence, in the critical years of 1999, during the referendum. You dispatched to Timor Leste, with other countries in the region like Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and others under the Security Council mandate, so the Philippines was very prominent there through the beginning of our independence," Ramos-Horta said.

Marcos, for his part, expressed optimism that Horta's visit to Manila "will be the beginning of more exchanges between our two countries."

The President said he is "very optimistic" that Horta's visit will be a very important start in developing and deepening the relationship between the two countries.

"The Philippines has always been very supportive of, not only the process of independence that East Timor went through, but also for your involvement in international relations and international events and issues that we feel are necessary for us to be able to come together and for us to be able to make a difference and to maintain the peace and the stability in our region, especially in these rather difficult times that we are facing," Marcos said.

The Chief Executive also thanked his counterpart for inviting him to visit Timor Leste.

"And I thank you for the very gracious invitation that you have just extended to me to visit your country and we would certainly want to do that to, as I said, continue to expand the relations between Timor-Leste and the Philippines," Marcos said.

Marcos welcomed Horta to the Malacañan Palace on Friday morning with an arrival honors. The President will also be holding a  banquet for Horta and his delegation after their bilateral talks.