East Timor signs maritime border deal with Australia

Yahoo – AFP, Carole LANDRY, 7 March 2018

East Timorese protesters hold a rally demanding a permanent maritime border
 between East Timor and Australia, in Dili on March 22, 2016; the boundary issue
has now been resolved Protesters rallied on March 22 outside the Australian embassy
 in the East Timor capital Dili, demanding Canberra come to the table "in good
faith" to end a long-running dispute over major oil and gasfields in the Timor Sea

East Timor signed a treaty with Australia at the United Nations on Tuesday to end a decade-old dispute over their maritime border and potentially unlock billions of dollars in offshore gas revenue.

The treaty is expected to provide a major boost to East Timor, one of Asia's poorest countries, by establishing special arrangements for sharing revenue from the Greater Sunrise offshore gas fields in the Timor Sea.

After signing the treaty during a UN ceremony, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters that East Timor stood to gain "substantial benefits" from the deal.

"We are talking billions of dollars over the life of such a resource project," Bishop said.

Discovered in 1974, Greater Sunrise has an estimated worth of between $40 and $50 billion. The offshore fields are located 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of East Timor and 450 kilometers northwest of Darwin.

East Timor's minister for delimitations said development of the gas fields through a pipeline that would reach the south coast of his country would be a "game-changer."

Such a project would have a "transformational impact" on the socioeconomics of the country, where 65 percent of the population of 1.5 million are "young people looking for jobs," said Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira.

A commission that oversaw negotiations on the treaty will soon release a report on the various options to develop the Greater Sunrise fields.

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East Timor, one of Asia's poorest countries, has been in dispute with Australia over the sea border since its independence from Indonesia in 2002.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres witnessed the signing of the treaty, which was the first-ever reached under a special conciliation mechanism of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

While details of the revenue-sharing arrangement have not been finalized, Bishop said East Timor would receive the lion's share of revenue -- 70 or 80 percent -- from the development of Greater Sunrise.

The project could also help East Timor boost its standing among foreign investors, said Pereira.

"If foreign investors can see that Timor can manage successfully a complex industry downstream, building a platform, a pipeline and an energy plant, they will trust that we can do much more," he said.

In 2016, East Timor dragged Australia before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the world's oldest arbitration tribunal, based in The Hague, after contesting a previous deal signed in 2006.

Dili wanted that treaty, which also covered the vast Greater Sunrise fields, torn up after accusing Australia of spying to gain commercial advantage during the negotiations.

As the dispute escalated, a group of energy companies including Australia's Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas decided to mothball plans to develop the Greater Sunrise fields.

In January last year, the two neighbors announced that a new pact would be negotiated through the arbitration court.

East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 before it gained independence in 2002 after a UN-sponsored referendum.

East Timor & Australia sign treaty to end decade-old dispute over maritime border, potentially unlock billions in offshore gas revenues
https://t.co/N2MS50BpNG pic.twitter.com/kzeGJmdb39

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 7, 2018

World Court to Shine Light on East Timor-Australia Spy Row

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Charles Onians, January 19, 2014

East Timorese activists hold a banner during a protest outside the Australian
 embassy in Dili, East Timor, on Dec. 9, 2013. (EPA Photo/Antonio Dasiparu)

The Hague. Tiny, young East Timor drags its giant neighbor Australia before the United Nations’ top court next week in a cloak-and-dagger case with billions of dollars in natural resources at stake.

At the heart of the David and Goliath dispute at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is a controversial oil and gas treaty signed by Dili in 2006, shortly after independence from Indonesia.

East Timor wants judges at the ICJ, which rules on disputes between states, to order Australia to return documents its intelligence services seized last year relating to Dili’s bid to get the treaty torn up.

“It’s simple: we’re asking for our documents back. Australia has unlawfully taken documents that are rightfully the property of Timor-Leste,” government spokesman Agio Pereira told AFP ahead of Monday’s hearing.

East Timor gained its independence in 2002 following years of brutal Indonesian occupation but has a sluggish economy that is heavily dependent on oil and gas.

Dili wants the key treaty it signed with Canberra in 2006 dividing oil and gas resources ripped up, saying Australia spied on ministers to gain a commercial advantage.

Australia allegedly used an aid project refurbishing East Timor’s cabinet offices as a front to plant listening devices in the walls in order to eavesdrop on deliberations about the treaty in 2004.

The treaty, Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea, or CMATS, set out a 50-50 split of proceeds from the vast maritime energy fields between Australia and East Timor estimated at 26 billion euros ($36 billion).

Dili signed such treaties “at fragile and vulnerable times in our young nation’s history,” government spokesman Pereira said.

“Now, in 2014, we are acting with a new breadth of information, data and analysis, including information that Australia may have acted in bad faith and in breach of international law.”

Australian media have reported that the lion’s share of Timor Sea oil and gas would be on Timorese territory if the maritime border were defined according to customary rules of the sea.

But first the half-island nation wants the ICJ to order the return of documents seized in November when Australia’s domestic spy agency raided the Canberra offices of East Timor’s lawyer, Bernard Collaery.

Collaery is representing East Timor’s government in its bid lodged last year to get the CMATS treaty cancelled at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, housed in the same Palace of Justice in The Hague as the ICJ.

While that case is being held behind closed doors, the ICJ hearings will for the first time shine a very public light on Australia’s alleged skullduggery.

“This is going to be pretty hard on Australia’s image, it’s not exactly glorious for them,” international law expert Olivier Rentelink from The Hague’s Asser Institute told AFP.

The premises of a former Australian intelligence agent turned whistleblower in the arbitration case against Canberra were also raided.

Australia has largely refused to comment on the proceedings, although Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended the raids as in the national interest.

East Timor Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources Alfredo Pires stressed his country’s generally good relations with Australia but said: “The only avenue we have as a small country is international legislation.”

Dili has asked for “provisional measures” until the ICJ rules on the case, including that the documents be handed to the court and that Australia guarantee it will not intercept communications between East Timor and its legal advisers.

“Timor Leste is a young country, we had the UN here and everyone teaching us transparency, the rule of law, and then we get one of the great teachers not following the rules,” said Pires.

Cases at the ICJ can take years to resolve.

Agence France-Presse

RP, Papua New Guinea to engage in high-level talks on fishery cooperation

BusinessWorld, Philippines,

SAN JUAN, BATANGAS — The Philippines and Papua New Guinea will negotiate a bilateral agreement aimed at fostering fishery cooperation, said Malacañang yesterday.

Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde said President Gloria M. Arroyo will discuss the agreement during Prime Minister Michael Somare’s four-day stay in the country starting this Saturday.

"The Philippines and Papua New Guinea are members of the so-called Coral Triangle Initiative countries. A joint venture of fisheries will be discussed during the state visit," he said.

Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, and the Solomon Islands are also part of a multilateral alliance to preserve the Coral Triangle environment. All in all, the area spans 6.5 million square kilometers and is home to over 600 reef-building corals and various fish species.

As the most diverse marine region on the planet, the Coral Triangle sustains the lives of nearly 130 million people and contains major spawning and nursery grounds for tuna.

Mr. Somare, who’s arriving in Manila on Saturday, will join Ms. Arroyo in General Santos on Monday to meet with key stakeholders in the tuna industry in the province.

Last week, the World Wide Fund urged Coral Triangle Initiative countries to negotiate for better tuna prices and fair fishing arrangements with other nations.

The six nations of the initiative — Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands — account for around 70% of the world’s tuna catch, including threatened species like big eye and yellowfin tuna.

"Protection and responsible management of these spawning grounds and migratory routes is an essential ecosystem service to the world’s multi-billion dollar tuna industry," WWF Coral Triangle Program head Lida Pet Soede was earlier quoted as saying.

"Taking advantage of this unique asset can help strengthen the position of Coral Triangle countries in their negotiations for fairer prices and fairer fishing arrangements with non-Coral Triangle nations, who also fish in these waters."

On Sunday, the visiting Papua New Guinea leader will attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Luneta Park in the morning before attending mass at San Agustin Church. Mr. Somare will also have a working lunch with business tycoon Lucio Tan after his tour of Intramuros. He will be given full arrival honors at Caticlan airport on Sunday afternoon and Ms. Arroyo will host the state dinner for him at the Shangri-La resort hotel. — B. S. Sto. Domingo

Related Article:

World Ocean Conference, 11-15 May 2009, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

World’s Maritime Experts Gather in Manado

Thursday, 12 March, 2009 | 18:08 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The results of the 2009 World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado will be brought to the United Nations’ Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. “The conference in Manado will discuss the role of oceans in the global climate change,” said Indroyono Soesilo, National Committee secretary of the conference, which will take place in May 11 – 15, 2009.

At the 13th Climate Change Conference in Bali on December 2007, the discussion on oceans’ role was minimal. Indonesia then took the initiative to host the WOC. The maritime conference in Manado is the first to take place and is planned to be held annually. Meanwhile, the Climate Change Conference has been held 14 times, the last one being in Poznan, Poland, last December. The conference in Copenhagen is very important as it becomes the new basic reference when the Kyoto Protocol ends.

Until yesterday, 700 delegates from 146 countries confirmed their preparedness to come to Manado, North Sulawesi. Also to attend the event will be the presidents of member countries of the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. CTI partners, the United States and Australia also plan to attend. However, the US delegation will not be led by President Barack Husein Obama.

One of the WOC’s events will be a symposium on science and international maritime technology. “There will be 32 parallel sessions to discuss 610 papers,” said Aryo Hanggono, Maritime Technology Research Center chief at the Maritime and Fishery Department. Around 300 speakers will come from overseas.

The scientists will discuss various maritime issues, including marine life beings as sharks and stingrays, aqua culture, bio-technology, energy, coelacanth, CO2 sink, health and bio-medic, the Darwin and Wallace theories and the impact of climate change. The conference will also feature exhibitions on science and technology, the maritime industry, maritime festival, and maritime education for the youths in three research ships. According to Aryo, when the conference in Manado is finished, his department will organize maritime campaigns for youths in the country.

UNTUNG WIDYANTO