Australia isn't trying take advantage of tiny East Timor in border negotiations with the impoverished half-island nation that could decide the fate of billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves, the foreign minister said yesterday.
The two countries resumed negotiations this week over where to draw the maritime boundary between them -- a line that will ultimately decide where up to US$30 billion dollars in oil and gas revenue will flow.
Some Australians have accused their government of strong-arming its neighbor in the talks.
Not a rip-off
"Australia's interest isn't to rip off East Timor," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the Seven network yesterday.
"I think that they [the East Timorese] understand that, and I think we are having a good level of negotiation," he said.
Energy companies last year halted plans to tap the Greater Sunrise gas field -- the largest in the Timor Sea that divides Australia's north coast from the tiny island nation -- after the two sides failed to reach a border settlement.
Cheating?
East Timor wants the boundary set in the middle of the 600km of sea between them. But Australia wants to preserve the maritime boundary it agreed with Indonesia, which occupied East Timor from 1975 to 1999.
In some places, that boundary is just 150km from East Timor's coast.
A group of Australians have taken out a series of advertisements showing World War II veterans accusing Prime Minister John Howard of cheating its tiny neighbor of much-needed resources.
Downer rejected those claims.
"We don't want to keep East Timor poor," he told the Seven network.
"The people who claim that about Australia or anyone in Australia are just making rhetoric," he added.
Senior officials told The Australian newspaper for yesterday's edition that both sides were close to agreement.
They said the deal hinges on acceptance by East Timor of a complex formula that would provide a steady revenue flow and investments in industry development to Dili in exchange for a 60-year deferment of border talks.
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