Timor gap to be center of tripartite talks

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Bali

Indonesia, Australia and East Timor will begin tripartite talks on Tuesday, which will zero in on the issue of oil rich Timor gap.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Monday that the representatives of the three parties would focus on maritime boundaries following the separation of East Timor from Indonesia.

"We have agreed to start working out the maritime boundaries in the north as well as the east of East Timor, which is officially known as the Timor gap," Hassan said.

Hassan said that the Timor gap may touch maritime demarcation lines of the three countries. If that was the case, there should be an agreement to establish a three-junction point in the East Timor sea.

Hassan will lead the Indonesian delegation in the tripartite meeting, while his counterpart Alexander Downer will lead the Australian delegation. East Timor will be represented by the head of the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET) Sergio de Mello.

Indonesia and Australia signed the well-known Timor gap agreement in December 1994 and then appointed 11 oil companies from around the world to explore oil and gas in the area.

However, after the separation of East Timor from Indonesia in 1999, Indonesia canceled the agreement as the area was no longer part of Indonesian territory.

The cancellation of this agreement confused oil companies participating in the Timor gap project, and this prompted them to renegotiate their contracts with both Australia and UNTAET.

Hassan said earlier that Indonesia would not claim oil-rich Timor gap. Nevertheless, some parties in Indonesia's West Timor claimed that Indonesia is entitled to revenues from the Timor gap project, if there were any.

East Timor shared the island of Timor with Indonesia's West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara. Therefore, the maritime border between East Timor and Indonesia is likely to touch parts of the Timor gap.

Hassan expressed concern that oil and gas exploration in the Timor gap may actually encroach on Indonesian waters.

Companies exploring oil and gas in the Timor gap will not apparently resume their activities until both Indonesia and East Timor draw a definite maritime border.

Meanwhile, East Timor is in dire need of income from the Timor gap to finance the running of the newly independent country, which will assume independence from the UN in May.

So far, only the sea borders between Indonesia and East Timor have been demarcated.