U.S. lawmakers urge Australia to be fair over East Timor
U.S. lawmakers urge Australia to be fair over East Timor
Agence France-Presse, Washington
A group of U.S. legislators has urged Australia to fairly negotiate its maritime boundary with tiny neighbor East Timor for equitable sharing of petroleum resources.
The fate of substantial oil and natural gas deposits in the sea between Australia and newly independent East Timor depends on a permanent boundary agreement to be hammered out between the two countries.
In their letter to Australian Prime Minister John Howard, the 53 members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged Canberra "to move seriously and expeditiously in negotiations with East Timor to establish a fair, permanent maritime boundary and an equitable sharing of oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea".
Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, who initiated the letter, said a fair agreement on permanent boundaries and the ability to derive revenues from the development of offshore petroleum and other resources was key to impoverished East Timor's progress.
It is "essential to East Timor's ability to rebuild its nation, alleviate mass poverty, and avoid long-term dependence on foreign aid", he said in a statement.
Following its independence from Indonesia in 2002, East Timor's parliament passed a law claiming a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone around the island and sought negotiations for a permanent maritime boundary with Australia.
The Australian government agreed to the talks, which was first held last November, but declined to accept a timetable or an end date for resolving the issue.
The next round of talks are scheduled to take place in East Timor's capital Dili on April 19-23.
The U.S. legislators also urged Australia to hold monthly meetings as requested by East Timor, rather than the semi-annual meetings, which Canberra have been insisting on, for a quick resolution to the issue.
"The world is watching closely how Australia treats East Timor" in the negotiations, said Karen Orenstein, the Washington Coordinator of the East Timor Action Network advocating for sustainable development, economic justice and human rights in East Timor.
"Australia will lose the goodwill it generated in 1999 if it cheats East Timor out of the tens of billions of dollars of petroleum revenue," she said.
In that year, an Australian-led, UN-backed force helped stem pro-Indonesia militia violence that followed East Timor's vote for independence in October, 1999.