The country has inaugurated its first Catholic university, dedicated to St John Paul II, who is believed to have inspired the country's struggle for independence when it was still under Indonesian rule in 1989

Newest member of the ASEAN countries, East Timor will be ready to organise the regional bloc's annual meeting by 2029; to do so, Dili is accelerating its infrastructure development and intensifying efforts to attract more visitors

East Timor became a member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 26 October 2025 during the 47th ASEAN Summit, finishing a two-decade accession process and after being an observer since 2002

The three-day student protest organised by the Timor-Leste University Students ended with a clean-up of the premises; President José Ramos-Horta in a public statement praised the initiative