Dili claims on fuel sympathy 'a tactic'

Dili claims on fuel sympathy 'a tactic'

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer accused East
Timor on Sunday of trying to stir up sympathy over its claims for
a greater share of oil and gas revenues from the Timor Sea oil
reserves.

The two countries are in dispute over the seabed boundary
between the two countries, the drawing of which divides control
of an estimated A$30 billion (US$22 billion) in royalties from
the oil and gas deposits.

"The tactic here is to try to create public controversy in
Australia by a lot of emotive criticism of Australia," he told
commercial television here.

Downer said Australia had been incredibly generous to East
Timor, but in the battle for revenues Australia would stand by
its rights.

Australia wants East Timor to honor an agreement signed last
year covering the disputed multi-billion dollar Greater Sunrise
field, which the former Indonesian province has so far refused.

East Timor regards the Timor Sea revenue as a lifeline that
can end the fledgling nation's dependence on international aid.

Australia wants to keep the maritime border agreed with
Jakarta after Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, which would
give it the lion's share of the reserves.

But Dili argues that Jakarta only agreed to that deal in
exchange for Canberra's recognition of its illegal annexation of
East Timor and the border should lie at the mid-point between the
two countries, in line with standard international practice.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has said Dili is unlikely to
ratify an interim revenue-sharing deal on the Timor Sea reserves
because it gives East Timor only 18 percent of revenues while
handing Canberra 82 percent.

Downer said East Timor would receive 90 percent of government
revenue from a joint development area, whereas a previous deal
with Indonesia would have resulted in a 50-50 split.

"In the end when two countries are adjacent with each other,
if one is richer than the other that isn't an argument for the
poorer country being able to take territory from the richer
country," Downer added. --AFP