East Timor launches UN campaign to pressure Australia to agree permanent maritime borders
East Timor believes that if boundaries were decided under the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, most of the rich oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea would lie within its territory.
East Timor on Monday took its quest for permanent maritime boundaries with Australia to the United Nations, with the aim of forcing its giant neighbour to negotiate an agreement in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“Under international law, Australia is obliged to negotiate permanent maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste [East Timor] but it has refused to do so, despite all our invitations,” the tiny nation’s Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo said in a statement.
“This has left us with only one option,” he said, referring to the “compulsory conciliation proceedings” launched by his government earlier in the day under the Unclos.
Under international law, Australia is obliged to negotiate permanent maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste
East Timor believes that if its boundaries with Australia in the Timor Sea were decided under the 1982 convention, most of the rich oil and gas reserves in the sea would lie within its territory.
“All Timor-Leste is seeking is a fair and equitable solution and importantly, what we are entitled to under international law,” Araujo said.
He called it “a matter of national priority ... as the final step in realising our sovereignty as an independent state”.
In 2006, four years after East Timor gained its independence, the two countries signed a treaty on maritime arrangements in the Timor Sea.