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Mapping good fences with Timor Leste
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on the issue of borders and ASEAN (The Jakarta Post, March 21)
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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on the issue of borders and ASEAN (The Jakarta Post, March 21). This reminds us that Indonesia and Timor Leste have yet to settle their shared land and maritime boundaries.
I remember my involvement in land-boundary mapping back in 2003. Ten years after the survey, the land boundaries have still not been completed.
It seems that the talk on settling boundaries is in line with the spirit of Timor Leste’s President Taur Matan Ruak. Within the first few days after his election, President Ruak made a reasonably strong statement regarding the issue of maritime boundaries between Timor Leste and Australia.
The Sydney Morning Herald (April 17, 2012) wrote, “New East Timor president to take tough stance on boundary issues”.
Furthermore, Ruak was quoted as saying ‘’I see Australia is always a problem in negotiations because they want to get a bigger percentage. Most of their agreements depend just on political, not legal, negotiations.’’ It seems that President Ruak views the issue of maritime boundaries, especially those with Australia, as a top priority of his
administration.
I remember in 2004 meeting with Ramos Horta, the then foreign minister of Timor Leste, when he gave a talk in Sydney. He argued how important it was for Timor Leste to secure its entitlement over oil and gas in the Timor Sea through certain divisions of the maritime area.
In line with his statement, Mari Alkatiri, the then prime minister of Timor Leste, termed maritime boundary delimitation with Australia as a matter of “life or death”. Following this, in 2006, Australia and Timor Leste agreed on the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).
It seems that Timor Leste’s leaders pay a great deal of attention to maritime boundaries with its neighbors. This is understandable since maritime boundaries are essential for the country to have access to the oil and gas on which its economy heavily relies.
This begs the question, however, “How about maritime boundaries with Indonesia?”
How does Indonesia view the urgency of maritime boundary settlement with Timor Leste?
Timor Leste is Indonesia’s 10th neighbor with which maritime boundaries need to be settled. Even though the maritime boundary issue with Timor Leste is not as pressing as that with Malaysia, for example, it does not mean that settlement is unimportant.
Up to now, negotiations on the maritime boundaries with Timor Leste have yet to start. The main reason for the delay is that land boundaries between the two countries have yet to be finalized.
Indonesia and Timor Leste have managed to demarcate around 97 percent of the total land boundaries: on eastern and western sides.
These two sets of land boundaries are the consequence of the fact that Timor Leste has two main land territories on Timor Island that are separated by Indonesian territory.
Oecussi is an enclaved land territory of Timor Leste that is geographically located within Indonesia’s territory. This also generates complicated consequences regarding the movement of people and goods between the two separated territories. In addition, this also causes a convoluted maritime delimitation between Indonesia and Timor Leste.
There are three locations where maritime boundaries need to be settled: the Ombai Strait, Wetar Strait and Timor Sea. While all the three are equally important, it is fair to say that maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea are more urgent since that ocean hosts a larger amount of fishing and other economic activities.
Unfortunately, pending land boundaries have prevented both countries from starting negotiations on the maritime boundaries. This is, to an extent, understandable since the terminal/end point of any land boundary will serve as the starting point of the maritime boundaries.
Ideally, Indonesia and Timor Leste will finalize their land boundaries first before starting maritime boundary negotiations.
However, this is not the only way to proceed. There are a number of things to discuss in relation to maritime boundaries and “defining the starting point” of the boundary line is just one of them.
Therefore, negotiations could start before the completion of land boundaries. The two countries can start to discuss the possible methods and approaches to maritime delimitation.
If it is done properly, it is not impossible that intensive discussions on maritime boundaries could also indirectly speed up the land boundary demarcations.
Indonesia’s preferred boundaries with Timor Leste are clearly depicted on the official map of Indonesia. Meanwhile, Timor Leste seems to base its position on its Maritime Zone Act, which details its maritime claims.
In delimitation, it is likely that both countries would prefer, at least to start with, negotiations, even though mediation and arbitration are also possible.
However, there seems no urgency for the two countries to approach a third party, such as the International Court of Justice, for maritime delimitations.
It is worth nothing that Timor Leste is now party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (CLOS). It ratified the convention on Jan. 8, 2013, and is the latest country to ratify. This can help the negotiations between Indonesia and Timor Leste as the two can now use the CLOS as their legal basis in conducting their negotiations.
However, it is worth noting that maritime boundaries are a matter of mutual agreement and the existence of a common legal basis is no guarantee of success.
The spirit of the leaders of Indonesia and Timor Leste on border issues is a positive sign to accelerate the maritime boundary negotiations between the two.
Defining boundaries is essentially mapping good fences between the two neighboring countries. This is important; as Robert Frost once asserted in his poem, “Mending Wall”, “good fences make good neighbors”.
The author is a lecturer at the department of geodetic engineering, Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta.
