TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Timor Leste and Australia agree draft maritime border treaty

  (Agence France-Presse)
The Hague, Netherlands
Sun, October 15, 2017

Share This Article

Change Size

 Timor Leste and Australia agree draft maritime border treaty East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao (left) briefs Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr (right) with a map of East Timor during their meeting at the government palace in Dili on Dec. 13, 2012. Carr is on a two-day visit in Dili as UN peacekeepers end their mission in East Timor by the end of December. (Agence France -Presse/Valentino De Sousa)

A

ustralia and Timor-Leste have drawn up a draft treaty setting out their maritime borders, aiming to end a bitter dispute over lucrative oil and gas fields, officials said Sunday.

"Timor Leste and Australia have reached agreement on the complete text of a draft treaty" in confidential talks in The Hague over the past week, the Permanent Court of Arbitration said in a statement.

It "delimits the maritime boundary between them in the Timor Sea and addresses the legal status of the Greater Sunrise gas field," the tribunal added. 

Without giving any details, the court hailed the draft treaty hammered out after a deal was reached in August as a "pathway to the development of the resource, and the sharing of the resulting revenue."

The two countries have been at loggerheads for a decade over the previous Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) agreement between them, which carved up future revenue from oil and gas reserves in the area.

Impoverished Timor-Leste and which gained independence from Indonesian occupation in 2002, relies heavily on oil and gas exports.

In 2006 it signed the CMATS treaty with Australia, which covers the vast Greater Sunrise gas field between the two nations that is worth billions of dollars.

But Dili later accused Canberra of spying to gain commercial advantage during the 2004 negotiations and demanded the treaty be ripped up.

Australia had argued the treaty was legal, binding and valid, but agreed to end it in line with Dili's wishes on January 9. 

The governments in East Timor and Australia will now have to approve the treaty, with the two countries set to meet again before the end of November in Singapore aiming to set a date for a signing ceremony some time in 2018.

Peter Taksoe-Jensen, the head of a conciliation commission set up by the tribunal to help steer the negotiations, praised the "constructive" atmosphere of the talks.

Dili and Canberra were "standing together to ensure that the resources of the seabed are developed to the benefit of both peoples," he said.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.