East Timor formally gained independence on 20 May 2002 becoming the first country to gain independence in 21st century. Dili is the capital and largest city of the East Timor. It lies in South East Asia, neighboring Indonesia and Australia in the south with Timor Sea in between. It has long history of complicated relationship both the neighboring countries.
The border between the Dutch and Portuguese parts of the Timor island was established by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 1914 and remains the international boundary between the successor states Indonesia and East Timor. On the other hand, the boundary between Australia and East Timor was hard earned victory for East Timor.
SHORT HISTORY OF EAST TIMOR
The Dutch colonized Indonesia before they moved towards Timor. The Dutch and Portuguese fought for the control of Timor until it was divided into two parts and a treaty was signed in 1859. Dutch controlled the West Timor which became a part of Indonesia while East Timor controlled by Portuguese became a sovereign state.
During the Portuguese control over East Timor, Portuguese mostly focused on extracting the wealth and did not invest in developing the country leaving the country dirt poor. Later Japanese took over by winning the Battle of Timor but change of control was for a short period of time. Japanese were soon driven out Portuguese, Dutch along with Australia and Allied in 1943.
Portugal took control again but suddenly abandoned the colony in 1975 and East Timor gained independence. Soon after, wave of communism emerged in East Timor and to stop it Indonesia invaded East Timor on 7 December 1975. UN opposed the invasion.
EAST TIMOR AND AUSTRALIA RELATIONSHIP
The relationship with Australia was dominated from before independence by disputes over the natural resources in the Timor Sea. It had been speculated that Australia had encouraged Indonesia to invade East Timor. Australia was the only country to recognize Indonesia’s invasion.
On 11 December 1989 Time Gap Treaty was signed by Indonesia on the zone of cooperation and Australia. According to which boundaries would be drawn by Convention on the Continental Shelf 1858, creating a ‘Zone of Cooperation’ and both states could exploit the natural resources.
Santa Cruz Massacre 1991 was one of the reasons for the change of stance of many countries like U.S though Australia’s stance remained the same and continued to support Indonesia.
Australia support for Indonesia over East Timor shifted gradually over the time. Indonesia President Suharto and Australian President Paul Keating had good relationship. Newly elected Australian President John Howard government policy towards East Timor which was initially like Paul Keating suddenly changed. The stance shifted after Fall of Suharto and resistant movement from the people of the East Timor.
Later Australian President John Howard sent a letter to Indonesia president suggesting him to hold a referendum, without any expectations. But he was surprised when prompted by the letter, the president decided to hold referendum immediately. It was expensive to handle East Timor and Indonesia did not want to spend money on maintaining its economy.
An UN-sponsored referendum was held in 1999 where most people voted to be an independent country and United Nations took over for the transition period. The country still needed time to be stabilized causing violent clashes prompting Australia to lead International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) to restore the order.
POST-INDEPENDENCE BOUNDARY ISSUES
Timor transitioned to independence and the relation between the two countries changed.
The drawing maritime boundary was another set of challenges as newly sovereign state East Timor had to face to get to exploit Greater Sunrise Oil field. As per Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) prescribed by the 1982 United States Convention on the Law of the Sea, every sovereign state has the exclusive right up to 200 nautical miles on marine resources. Therefore, overlapping Australia and East Timor economic zone.
As the Customary International Law states, the nation would have ‘started with a clean state in the matter of treaty obligations’ which meant the agreement for ‘zone of cooperation’ needed to be signed again by the East Timor to be effective.
Five years later in 2002, Timor Sea Treaty replaced Time Gap Treaty for the joint exploration of the Timor Sea. The treaty was to run for 30 years from the day it come into force or when sea bed boundary can be established.
Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) which restricted East Timor of establishing or engage in in any legal process related to maritime boundary until 2057 (Fifty years). This helped Australia to use oil and gas resources without worrying about maritime boundary as the large area of these sea resources were closer to East Timor coast.
The turn of events occurred when spying scandal broke out in 2012. It was revealed that listening devised was planted by Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) in a room adjacent to Timor Prime Minister office to get information about the treaty negotiation and ensure upper hand.
People of East Timor felt betrayed. Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said the treaty would be invalidated as a breach of ‘good faith’ but Australia Prime Minister didn’t agree. East Timor took the case to International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. The protest broke out in East Timor and Australian government was criticized.
Australia agreed to renegotiate and East Timor dropped the case against Australia.
The dispute was resolved in 2018 following confederation procedures before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The two countries signed Maritime Boundaries Treaty in 2018, establishing maritime boundary between them along with agreement on natural resources which included Greater Sunrise gas field.
