Emotional? Realpolitik? Best interest of Australia?
Let's see, if the "continental shelf" were the other way round and East Timor had its shelf extending right to the shores of Australia, would the Australian government have argued just as strenuously the same way??? One can hardly stoop any lower.........................!
Substantial oil and natural gas deposits lie under the Timor Sea between Australia and East Timor. The fate of tens of billions of dollars of revenue depend on a boundary agreement.
East Timor is among the poorest of the world's countries, suffering from very low levels of basic services and high unemployment. East Timor is currently struggling not to go into debt to international financial institutions as it needs to cover a US$126 million financial gap between 2005 and 2007. Yet between 1999 and today, the Australian government has received more than US$1 billion in oil and gas revenues that would belong to East Timor under a fair boundary settlement.
Last November, a global coalition wrote to Australian Prime Minister John Howard urging his government to set a firm timetable for establishing a permanent maritime boundary between East Timor and Australia. The letter, signed by representatives of 100 organizations from 19 countries stated, "We have been troubled by your government's callous disregard for East Timor's sovereignty and rights, which seems contrary to the deep concern for East Timor expressed by so many Australians…Australia's own long-term national interests are best served by a stable and prosperous East Timor...."
The two countries held preliminary talks last November, more than a year after East Timor requested it. They will not meet again until April.
In October 2002, East Timor enacted a Maritime Boundary Law, claiming a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone in all directions, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Where neighboring claims overlap, as is the case with East Timor and Australia, countries must negotiate a permanent maritime boundary, usually halfway between their coastlines. In March 2002, Australia gave formal notice that it was withdrawing from international legal mechanisms - the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea - to resolve boundary issues that cannot be settled by negotiation. East Timor’s soon-to-be Prime Minister called this withdrawal an “unfriendly” act. The withdrawal prevents the new nation from bringing Australia to those forums to contest its refusal to engage in timely and cooperative boundary negotiations.
Australia Day commemorates the first permanent British settlement in Australia in 1788. Many Australians decry the holiday as celebrating an often brutal colonial history that elevates 215 years of white rule over 60,000 years of indigenous culture. The Australian government can and should begin reclaiming the holiday for justice and fairness by pledging to honor the sovereignty and resource rights of East Timor.
