UNITED NATIONS — 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.