East Timor drops bugging claims against Australia to help resolve maritime border dispute

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A Timorese youth makes finishing touches on a mural in Dili, East Timor. Photo: AP

Published: 3:42pm, 24 Jan 2017Updated: 10:41pm, 24 Jan 2017

East Timor has withdrawn its Australian espionage claims in the permanent court of arbitration as a “confidence-building measure”, as the two countries continue to negotiate over their maritime border.

In 2013 it was revealed the Australian government had bugged the Dili cabinet room of the East Timor government in 2006 – under the guise of Australian aid-sponsored renovations.

The East Timor government claimed the espionage gave Australia an unfair advantage in negotiations over the Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (Cmats), which divides future revenue from the tens of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas that lie beneath the sea.

In a joint statement issued on Tuesday by the East Timor and Australian governments, the two countries confirmed East Timor had withdrawn from Cmats and the treaty would cease to operate from 10 April this year.

As the final in a series of “confidence-building measures”, East Timor agreed to withdraw two arbitration cases before the permanent court of arbitration (PCA) in The Hague: the “espionage case” and a second arbitration concerning jurisdiction of a gas pipeline from Bayu-Undan to Darwin.

The dispute over the Timor Sea – more precisely the lucrative oil fields beneath the sea – has pre-empted and then overshadowed the short and chequered history between independent East Timor and Australia.

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