page_title: Australia–East Timor relations
section_title: Oil disputes
hierarchical_section_title: Australia–East Timor relations / Economic and trade relations / Oil disputes
caption_attribution_description: Tetun: Demostrasaun ba Australia English: Demonstration against Australia
context_page_description: Australia–East Timor relations refer to the bilateral relations between Australia and East Timor. Both countries are near neighbors with close political and trade ties. East Timor, the youngest and one of the poorest countries in Asia, lies about 610 kilometres northwest of the Australian city of Darwin and Australia has played a prominent role in the young republic's history.
  Australia has led international support for East Timor during its first 10 years of independence, not only as the largest bilateral donor of development assistance, but also by providing a leadership role to ensure security and stability in the country.
  Australia led the military force that helped stabilize the country after it gained independence from Indonesia in 1999 and has been a major source of aid since. In recent years, relations between both countries have deteriorated as a result of the Australia–East Timor spying scandal.
context_section_description: Large oil and gas reserves lie in the sea between the two countries in an area known as the Timor Gap. Territorial disputes over control of this resource, which some geologists estimate could pump over $10 billion of oil and gas, have coloured diplomacy with East Timor, both when it was an Indonesian possession and since. Australia broke with many of its allies and recognised Indonesia's annexation of East Timor in 1976 in what was widely seen by analysts at the time as a quid pro quo for a treaty favourable to Australia involving oil and gas exploration in the area. Since East Timor's independence, disputes over the split Dili would receive when the resource was finally developed have been an occasional strain on otherwise close relations.
  In the aftermath of the Australia–East Timor spying scandal in 2013, East Timor launched a case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to pull out of the gas treaty it had signed with Australia accusing the latter of having its intelligence agency, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), bug the East Timorese cabinet room in Dili in 2004.
  On 3 March 2014, in response to an East Timorese request for an indication of provisional measures, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Australia not to interfere with communications between East Timor and its legal advisors in the arbitral proceedings and related matters.
  New negotiations about the maritime boundary began in 2014. Both parties signed a revised agreement in March 2018, ending the long-running dispute. In addition to demarcating maritime borders, the agreement guarantees 70-80% of revenue to East Timor and 20-30% of revenue to Australia depending on where gas is piped.
caption: Over ten thousand Timorese demonstrated in 2016 at the Australian embassy in Dili
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