Image copyright AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT Image caption The new border - marked by the green line - will bring economic benefits to East Timor

Australia and East Timor have signed a historic treaty on a permanent maritime border in the Timor Sea.

The deal ends a decade-long dispute between the neighbours over rights to the sea's rich oil and gas reserves.

East Timor, one of the world's poorest nations, will now gain the majority of any future revenue.

The countries signed the deal at the UN headquarters in New York, after negotiations in the international court of arbitration.

UN Secretary General António Guterres praised the "vision and determination" of both nations in achieving the agreement.

How did conflict arise?

After East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, no permanent maritime boundary was established between Australia and the new nation.

Instead, the two sides agreed on a temporary boundary, but East Timor later argued that deal had been unfairly forced upon them.

It believed its more powerful neighbour had an unfairly large share of access to oil and gas fields that are estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars.

In 2016, East Timor contested the arrangements in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. Mediation between the nations concluded last week.

What is in the new deal?

The landmark treaty sets out the maritime border at the midway point between the countries, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Australia had pushed for a border at the edge its continental shelf, which would have put the boundary closer to East Timor.

Image copyright AFP Image caption A protest outside Australia's embassy in East Timor in 2016 over the border dispute

The new deal means East Timor will receive at least 70% of the largest oil field, Greater Sunrise, which is worth an estimated $40bn (£28bn; A$51bn). Previously, revenue was to be split evenly between the countries.

Australia will lose its jurisdiction in oil fields currently shared by both nations.

How did each nation react?

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her nation had an "enduring interest" in East Timor's prosperity, acknowledging the treaty as an important step.

"As good friends and close neighbours, we want Timor Leste to achieve its economic potential," she said.

It was "momentous day" for East Timor, said Augusto Cabral Pereira, Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister for the Delimitation of Borders.

What will happen now?

The new deal is a big win for East Timor, which relies heavily on oil and gas for its economy, but had been running out of resources..

The Greater Sunrise oil field is yet to be mined, with a consortium of miners blaming delays on the long-running border dispute.

Canberra had faced accusations it was colluding with oil companies to have gas processed in Australia, according to media reports - an assertion Ms Bishop denied.

Under the agreement, East Timor will receive a greater slice of revenue - 80% - if gas is processed in Australia.</s>Edith M. Lederer And Rod McGuirk, The Associated Press 

 



Australia and East Timor signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary Tuesday, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches lying beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

The agreement was doubly historic because it also marked the successful conclusion of the first-ever negotiations to settle maritime differences under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea -- a process that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged other countries to use to peacefully resolve such disagreements.

Before a crowd of cameras, diplomats and officials, two copies of the treaty were signed by Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and East Timor's minister for delimitation of borders, Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira. The chairman of the independent Conciliation Commission that led negotiations, Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen, then signed as a witness.

"It is a landmark event for our two nations, but also for international law," Bishop said. "Both our governments have deemed this to be a just and equitable outcome."

Pereira agreed, saying: "Today is indeed a momentous day that will be recorded in East Timor's history and be remembered and celebrated. ... With the signing of this treaty today, we write a new chapter in the friendship between our two countries."

For East Timor, a half-island nation of 1.5 million people who are among the poorest in the world, the treaty is crucial to economic development and employment opportunities. Pereira said 65 per cent, mostly young people, are looking for jobs.

Bishop told reporters that under the treaty East Timor will get the biggest share of revenue from exploiting the oil and gas. It will be split either 80-20 if gas is piped to Australia for processing or 70-30 if it is piped to East Timor, she said.

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

Pereira said companies have told East Timor that it is feasible to build a pipeline to the country.

"We believe seriously that a successful pipeline to the south coast of Timor would be a game changer and have a transformational impact on the socio-economic status of the country," he said.

The dispute has dominated and soured relations since 2002, when East Timor emerged as a fledgling nation independent of Indonesia.

The terms of the deal negotiated under the Conciliation Commission in The Hague, Netherlands, through the Permanent Court of Arbitration are expected to be made public shortly, Australian diplomats said.

East Timor achieving its ambition of a border midway between the two countries could encourage Indonesia to renegotiate its own much longer maritime boundary with Australia, agreed in 1971 under outdated international law. The Indonesian border with Australia extends east and west of the new East Timor-Australia boundary and the vast expanse Indonesia allowed Australia is a source of increasing irritation for the Indonesian government.

Bishop told reporters that she had kept Indonesian officials informed of the negotiations with East Timor on the maritime boundary.

East Timor's oil revenues, which finance more than 90 per cent of government spending, are rapidly dwindling due to the exhaustion of existing fields in its territory. The country's $16 billion sovereign wealth fund could be empty within 10 years because the government's annual withdrawals are exceeding its investment returns, according to La'o Hamutuk, an East Timorese research institute.

Carlos Filipe Ximense Belo, the influential East Timorese Catholic bishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, welcomed the border resolution as an economic boon for his deeply Catholic country.

"We thank God because our sea becomes more widespread ... our economic zone becomes bigger," Belo said. "In the sea and on the sea bed, there is much wealth. Timorese will diligently explore and make this wealth contribute to us."

Portugal, East Timor's former colonial master, never had a border with Australia.

Australia began negotiating a border with Indonesia after the Indonesian military's brutal 24-year occupation of East Timor began in 1975. But by 1989, after a decade of talks, Australia and Indonesia agreed to disagree on where the line should be drawn for the sake of allowing oil and gas drilling in the resource-rich Timor Sea to proceed.

The rival border options became the north and south edges of a box called the Joint Petroleum Development Area. Australia and Indonesia shared the royalties piped from that disputed seabed.

Australia pressured East Timor into accepting the same border compromise in a 2002 treaty to provide legal certainty for developers of the massive Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, an untapped resource in the Timor Sea worth tens of billions of dollars.

Australia was widely criticized in 2016 over its unsuccessful rejection of the Permanent Court of Arbitration's jurisdiction to hear East Timor's border complaint. Many saw Australia as undermining its lecturing of China to abide by international law on Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Australia and East Timor signed a 2006 treaty on sharing future Greater Sunrise revenue. But the relationship plunged when East Timor accused Australian spies of bugging its Cabinet discussions to achieve an unfair negotiation advantage. Australia denied the allegation.

"Australia has an enduring interest in a stable and prosperous East Timor" and wants the country to achieve its economic potential, Bishop said.

East Timor's negotiating team was led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, the nation's first president. Pereira said he could attend the treaty signing but was "here in spirit."</s>(AP Photo/Seth Wenig). East Timor's Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister for the Delimitation of Borders Agio Pereira and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop talk to reporters after they signed a treaty during a ceremony at United Nations headqua...

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig). East Timor's Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister for the Delimitation of Borders Agio Pereira and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop talk to reporters after they signed a treaty during a ceremony at United Nations headqua...

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig). While United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, center, looks on, East Timorese Minister of State Agio Pereira shakes hands with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop after they signed a treaty during a ceremony at Un...

(Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade via AP). This undated map provided by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade shows Australia's maritime arrangements with East Timor. Australia and East Timor will sign a treaty that draws the fi...

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig). East Timorese Minister of State Agio Pereira and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop sign a treaty during a ceremony at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Australia and East Timor signed a treaty that draws...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Australia and East Timor signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary Tuesday, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches lying beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

The agreement was doubly historic because it also marked the successful conclusion of the first-ever negotiations to settle maritime differences under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea - a process that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged other countries to use to peacefully resolve such disagreements.

Before a crowd of cameras, diplomats and officials, two copies of the treaty were signed by Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and East Timor's minister for delimitation of borders, Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira. The chairman of the independent Conciliation Commission that led negotiations, Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen, then signed as a witness.

"It is a landmark event for our two nations, but also for international law," Bishop said. "Both our governments have deemed this to be a just and equitable outcome."

Pereira agreed, saying: "Today is indeed a momentous day that will be recorded in East Timor's history and be remembered and celebrated. ... With the signing of this treaty today, we write a new chapter in the friendship between our two countries."

For East Timor, a half-island nation of 1.5 million people who are among the poorest in the world, the treaty is crucial to economic development and employment opportunities. Pereira said 65 percent, mostly young people, are looking for jobs.

Bishop told reporters that under the treaty East Timor will get the biggest share of revenue from exploiting the oil and gas. It will be split either 80-20 if gas is piped to Australia for processing or 70-30 if it is piped to East Timor, she said.

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

Pereira said companies have told East Timor that it is feasible to build a pipeline to the country.

"We believe seriously that a successful pipeline to the south coast of Timor would be a game changer and have a transformational impact on the socio-economic status of the country," he said.

The dispute has dominated and soured relations since 2002, when East Timor emerged as a fledgling nation independent of Indonesia.

The terms of the deal negotiated under the Conciliation Commission in The Hague, Netherlands, through the Permanent Court of Arbitration are expected to be made public shortly, Australian diplomats said.

East Timor achieving its ambition of a border midway between the two countries could encourage Indonesia to renegotiate its own much longer maritime boundary with Australia, agreed in 1971 under outdated international law. The Indonesian border with Australia extends east and west of the new East Timor-Australia boundary and the vast expanse Indonesia allowed Australia is a source of increasing irritation for the Indonesian government.

Bishop told reporters that she had kept Indonesian officials informed of the negotiations with East Timor on the maritime boundary.

East Timor's oil revenues, which finance more than 90 percent of government spending, are rapidly dwindling due to the exhaustion of existing fields in its territory. The country's $16 billion sovereign wealth fund could be empty within 10 years because the government's annual withdrawals are exceeding its investment returns, according to La'o Hamutuk, an East Timorese research institute.

Carlos Filipe Ximense Belo, the influential East Timorese Catholic bishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, welcomed the border resolution as an economic boon for his deeply Catholic country.

"We thank God because our sea becomes more widespread ... our economic zone becomes bigger," Belo said. "In the sea and on the sea bed, there is much wealth. Timorese will diligently explore and make this wealth contribute to us."

Portugal, East Timor's former colonial master, never had a border with Australia.

Australia began negotiating a border with Indonesia after the Indonesian military's brutal 24-year occupation of East Timor began in 1975. But by 1989, after a decade of talks, Australia and Indonesia agreed to disagree on where the line should be drawn for the sake of allowing oil and gas drilling in the resource-rich Timor Sea to proceed.

The rival border options became the north and south edges of a box called the Joint Petroleum Development Area. Australia and Indonesia shared the royalties piped from that disputed seabed.

Australia pressured East Timor into accepting the same border compromise in a 2002 treaty to provide legal certainty for developers of the massive Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, an untapped resource in the Timor Sea worth tens of billions of dollars.

Australia was widely criticized in 2016 over its unsuccessful rejection of the Permanent Court of Arbitration's jurisdiction to hear East Timor's border complaint. Many saw Australia as undermining its lecturing of China to abide by international law on Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Australia and East Timor signed a 2006 treaty on sharing future Greater Sunrise revenue. But the relationship plunged when East Timor accused Australian spies of bugging its Cabinet discussions to achieve an unfair negotiation advantage. Australia denied the allegation.

"Australia has an enduring interest in a stable and prosperous East Timor" and wants the country to achieve its economic potential, Bishop said.

East Timor's negotiating team was led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, the nation's first president. Pereira said he could attend the treaty signing but was "here in spirit."

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer reported this story at the United Nations and AP writer McGuirk reported from Canberra, Australia. AP writer Oki Raimundos in Dili, East Timor, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Australia, East Timor sign deal on maritime border, agree to share revenue from Greater Sunrise oil and gas

Australia and East Timor have signed an agreement that draws the first maritime border between the two nations.

It is hoped the deal, signed at the United Nations in New York, will end the bitter dispute over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

The two nations have agreed to split revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposit, which lies between Australia and East Timor.

But there has been no agreement yet on where the gas and oil will be processed, and future negotiations on the subject could be difficult.

Australia has offered to give East Timor 80 per cent of the revenue if the oil and gas is piped to Darwin, while East Timor wants a 70 per cent share with the resources processed on its shores.

East Timor's chief negotiator, former president Xanana Gusmao, has accused Australia of colluding with resource companies to ensure the resources are piped south to Darwin instead of north to East Timor.

The nation wants to build a processing hub on its southern coastline, but Australia is deeply sceptical about East Timor's capacity to develop the plant.

Australia and East Timor have hailed the border agreement, saying in a joint statement that both nations "demonstrated good will and preparedness to compromise".

"Both countries negotiated in good faith in order to achieve a treaty that Timor Leste, Australia and the [Conciliation] Commission believe is fair, balanced and consistent with international law," the statement said.

But the fault lines running underneath the agreement are still clear.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said developing Greater Sunrise would "require the support of the private sector oil and gas joint venture companies whose capacity to develop and operate the project will depend on its economic viability".

Ms Bishop said she hoped to see East Timor take advantage of the area's natural resources.

"It's in our interest for Timor Leste to be a stable and prosperous neighbour, and that's why we want to see a project developed that's economically viable in the long term to deliver the maximum benefits," she said.

The joint venture companies, led by energy giant Woodside, maintain that piping gas to East Timor is not economically viable, because the pipeline would have to cross a five-kilometre-deep undersea trench.

But Dili is standing by its plan. It is desperate to develop Greater Sunrise as quickly as possible, because East Timor remains heavily reliant on gas and oil revenue, and its existing fields are expected to run dry within a decade.

East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister Agio Pereira said both nations would now press on with talks about developing Greater Sunrise.

"These negotiations have been tough. They were not meant to be easy. And it was important to both Australia and Timor Leste to achieve successful results," he said.</s>East Timor and Australia signed a treaty at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday to resolve a long-running dispute over their maritime border and struck a deal on how to share revenue from the giant offshore Greater Sunrise gas field.

Under the agreement, East Timor will receive a bigger share of the revenue than Australia depending on the development concept - 70 percent of the revenue if the gas is piped to the tiny country or 80 percent if the gas is piped to Australia for processing.

The agreement establishes a maritime boundary in the Timor Sea for the first time. Australia had sought a boundary aligned with its continental shelf, but East Timor argued the border should lie half way between it and Australia - placing much of the Greater Sunrise field under its control.

"With this treaty we open a new chapter in relations between Australia and Timor-Leste," said Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who signed the treaty alongside East Timor's Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister for the Delimitation of Borders Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira.

"Australia has an enduring interest in a stable and prosperous Timor-Leste. As good friends and close neighbors we want Timor-Leste to achieve its economic potential," she said.

Pereira acknowledged: "These negotiations have been tough."

The protracted dispute had led the owners of Greater Sunrise - Woodside Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan's Osaka Gas - to shelve the project.

The Greater Sunrise field is estimated to hold 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 226 million barrels of condensates, which analysts have previously estimated could be worth $40 billion.

However, development could be at least a decade away, with Woodside looking at the latter half of the next decade.

Ending years of opposition, Australia agreed in 2017 to accept Dili's formal notice to terminate an agreement to split petroleum revenue equally from Greater Sunrise and set a 50-year timetable for negotiating a permanent sea boundary.

Dili had taken the long-running maritime border dispute to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organization based at The Hague, which ordered compulsory arbitration between the two parties.

East Timor had been pushing hard for the building of an onshore processing plant to boost its economy.</s>UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - East Timor and Australia signed a treaty at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday to resolve a long-running dispute over their maritime border and struck a deal on how to share revenue from the offshore Greater Sunrise gas field.

East Timor will receive a bigger share of the revenue than Australia depending on the development concept - 70 percent of the revenue if the gas is piped to the tiny country or 80 percent if the gas is piped to Australia for processing.

The agreement also establishes a maritime boundary in the Timor Sea for the first time. Australia had sought a boundary aligned with its continental shelf, but East Timor argued the border should lie half way between it and Australia - placing much of the Greater Sunrise field under its control.

“With this treaty we open a new chapter in relations between Australia and Timor-Leste,” said Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who signed the treaty alongside East Timor’s Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister for the Delimitation of Borders Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira.

The protracted dispute had led the owners of Greater Sunrise - Woodside Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan’s Osaka Gas - to shelve the project.

The Greater Sunrise field is estimated to hold 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 226 million barrels of condensates, which analysts have previously estimated could be worth $40 billion. However, development could be at least a decade away, with Woodside looking at the latter half of the next decade.

Australian Associated Press reported shortly before the signing ceremony that East Timor had accused Australia of colluding with the oil companies to have the gas piped to Australia for processing.

“Australia rejects absolutely any suggestion that we have acted other than in utmost good faith throughout this conciliation process,” Bishop told reporters at the United Nations.

“The way is now clear for Timor-Leste, as the majority beneficiary of the division of the resource, to find a way with the joint venture partners to develop Greater Sunrise in an economically viable fashion,” she said.

East Timor had been pushing hard for the building of an onshore processing plant to boost its economy. Bishop said Australia does not have a position and that the main concern was that any project was economically viable.

“It’s a conciliation process, it was never meant to be easy. We had ups and downs in this 22, 23 months,” said Pereira, adding that the focus should be on Tuesday’s treaty signing.

Ending years of opposition, Australia agreed in 2017 to accept Dili’s formal notice to terminate an agreement to split petroleum revenue equally from Greater Sunrise and set a 50-year timetable for negotiating a permanent sea boundary.

Dili had taken the long-running maritime border dispute to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organization based at The Hague, which ordered compulsory arbitration between the two parties.</s>After more than four decades of bickering, Australia and East Timor have finally reached agreement on a maritime boundary in the oil and gas-rich Timor Sea.

The treaty signed yesterday at the United Nations in New York is being hailed as a historic breakthrough.

The treaty comes after several years of often tense negotiations between the two nations over rights to lucrative oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea — at one point East Timor accused Australia of spying on its negotiators.

But despite the new treaty, there is still no agreement on which country will process $50 billion worth of oil and gas in the Greater Sunrise field.</s>Australia and East Timor signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches lying beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

The agreement was doubly historic because it also marked the successful conclusion of the first-ever negotiations to settle maritime differences under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a process that UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged other countries to use to peacefully resolve such disagreements.

Before a crowd of cameras, diplomats and officials, two copies of the treaty were signed by Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and East Timor’s minister for delimitation of borders, Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira.

The chairman of the independent Conciliation Commission that led negotiations, Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen, then signed as a witness.

“It is a landmark event for our two nations, but also for international law,” Ms Bishop said. “Both our governments have deemed this to be a just and equitable outcome.”

Mr Pereira agreed, saying: “Today is indeed a momentous day that will be recorded in East Timor’s history and be remembered and celebrated. … With the signing of this treaty today, we write a new chapter in the friendship between our two countries.”

For East Timor, a half-island nation of 1.5 million people who are among the poorest in the world, the treaty is crucial to economic development and employment opportunities. Mr Pereira said 65%, mostly young people, are looking for jobs.

Ms Bishop told reporters that under the treaty East Timor will get the biggest share of revenue from exploiting the oil and gas. It will be split either 80-20 if gas is piped to Australia for processing or 70-30 if it is piped to East Timor, she said.

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

Mr Pereira said companies have told East Timor that it is feasible to build a pipeline to the country.

“We believe seriously that a successful pipeline to the south coast of Timor would be a game changer and have a transformational impact on the socio-economic status of the country,” he said.

The dispute has dominated and soured relations since 2002, when East Timor emerged as a fledgling nation independent of Indonesia.

The terms of the deal negotiated under the Conciliation Commission in The Hague, Netherlands, through the Permanent Court of Arbitration are expected to be made public shortly, Australian diplomats said.

East Timor achieving its ambition of a border midway between the two countries could encourage Indonesia to renegotiate its own much longer maritime boundary with Australia, agreed in 1971 under outdated international law.

The Indonesian border with Australia extends east and west of the new East Timor-Australia boundary and the vast expanse Indonesia allowed Australia is a source of increasing irritation for the Indonesian government.

Ms Bishop told reporters that she had kept Indonesian officials informed of the negotiations with East Timor on the maritime boundary.

Carlos Filipe Ximense Belo, the influential East Timorese Catholic bishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, welcomed the border resolution as an economic boon for his deeply Catholic country.

“We thank God because our sea becomes more widespread … our economic zone becomes bigger,” Mr Belo said. “In the sea and on the sea bed, there is much wealth. Timorese will diligently explore and make this wealth contribute to us.”</s>The latest on peace treaty between Australia and East Timor setting maritime border (all times local):

Australia and East Timor have signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches that lie beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

The agreement was doubly historic because it also marked the successful conclusion of the first-ever negotiations to settle maritime differences under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Before a crowd of cameras, diplomats and officials, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and East Timor minister Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira signed two copies of the treaty Tuesday night. The chairman of the Conciliation Commission, Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen, then signed as a witness.

Bishop said that under the treaty, revenue from exploiting the sea’s natural resources will be split either 80-20 or 70-30, with the lions share going to impoverished East Timor.</s>The latest on peace treaty between Australia and East Timor setting maritime border (all times local):

The United States has congratulated Australia and East Timor on signing a treaty on their maritime boundary.

The State Department noted in a statement Tuesday that the treaty was reached in “the first-ever conciliation process under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.”

The statement called the treaty “a testament to the efficacy and importance of resolving disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law.”

The treaty ends a long a bitter dispute between the neighbouring countries and paves the way for exploitation of billions of dollars in gas and oil under the Timor Sea — with at least 70 per cent of the revenue to go to impoverished East Timor.

Australia and East Timor have signed a historic treaty drawing their maritime boundary, ending years of bitter wrangling over billions of dollars of oil and gas riches that lie beneath the Timor Sea and opening a new chapter in relations.

The agreement was doubly historic because it also marked the successful conclusion of the first-ever negotiations to settle maritime differences under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Before a crowd of cameras, diplomats and officials, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and East Timor minister Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira signed two copies of the treaty Tuesday night. The chairman of the Conciliation Commission, Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen, then signed as a witness.

Bishop said that under the treaty, revenue from exploiting the sea’s natural resources will be split either 80-20 or 70-30, with the lions share going to impoverished East Timor.
Australia and East Timor sign a treaty for a permanent maritime border in the Timor Sea, ending a decade-long dispute over rights to the sea's rich oil and gas reserves.