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May 3rd, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Posted
East Timor is seeking to tear up a treaty with Australia on oil and gas revenues in the Timor Sea, arguing Australia spied on it during negotiations in 2004.
The Australian Government says neither East Timor’s claims about the treaty nor its allegations of espionage are new and the treaty remains in force.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says East Timor is seeking to have the treaty declared invalid.
He told PM that East Timor recently notified the Australian Government that it was launching a process of arbitration.
“Timor Leste notified Australia on April 23 that it has initiated arbitration under the 2002 Timor Sea treaty of a dispute that relates to the 2006 treaty on certain maritime arrangements in the Timor Sea,” he said.
The treaty is used to split revenue from the lucrative Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea.
East Timor has been in a long-running dispute with Australia and the Australian-based company Woodside about how the Greater Sunrise field will be developed.
Mr Dreyfus says East Timor alleges the CMATS treaty is invalid because the negotiations were not fair.
“[East Timor alleges] in the course of negotiating this treaty back in 2004, Australian officials were aware of confidential information belonging to Timorese negotiating team,” he said.
“We can’t comment further on the matter because these issues are going to be dealt with in the course of the arbitration.
“Australia has always conducted itself in a professional manner in diplomatic negotiations and has conducted those CMATS treaty negotiations in good faith.”
Professor of international law at the Australian National University, Donald Rothwell, says East Timor’s application for arbitration is a significant development.
“It’s a significant development because Australia has always tried to settle and resolve its maritime boundaries by way of negotiation,” he said.
“But clearly as far as East Timor is concerned a point has been reached where negotiation is not successful and that aspects of this dispute need to be subject to arbitration.”
Professor Rothwell says under a bilateral agreement, a three-person tribunal appointed by Australia and East Timor will be established to consider the case.
“And that tribunal would be able to consider first of all whether it has jurisdiction to resolve this dispute and then if it says yes to that, it will then look at the merits of the claim,” he said.
“It’s made quite clear in the Timor Sea treaty any award handed down by that tribunal would be final and binding upon Australia and East Timor.”
Professor Rothwell says it is possible the matter could be resolved within a year.
PM was not able to contact East Timor’s Government for a comment.
Topics:
foreign-affairs,
government-and-politics,
uranium-mining,
industry,
business-economics-and-finance,
east-timor,
australia
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-03/e-timor-to-tear-up-oil-treaty/4668902
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