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Timor-Leste

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Remembering Timor – a soldier’s view

Twenty years ago, several hundred soldiers from the 3RAR Parachute Battalion Group, including me, flew from our base in Holsworthy to Darwin. We had a brief training session with a cavalry squadron we had never worked with, and then, never having conducted any maritime training, we embarked on HMAS
By Rodger Shanahan
23 Sep 19
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INTERFET and the defence of Australia

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET), a multinational mission led by Australia to stabilise the country in 1999. As a former Army officer posted to Timor-Leste after INTERFET, I’m proud to be back in Dili today to represent the
By Luke Gosling
20 Sep 19
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In Timor-Leste, a big set of challenges

The 20th anniversary of the popular consultation that brought independence for Timor-Leste has been a time to celebrate the courage, determination, and persistence of the Timorese people. Despite enduring decades of violence, they never lost their hope for self-determination. Timor-Leste today is
By Guteriano Neves
17 Sep 19
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How the people of Timor‑Leste feel about security

Last week, Dili polished itself up and played host to visiting government officials from more than 20 countries, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison from Australia, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Timor-Leste’s vote for independence on 30 August 1999. As the excitement and gravitas
By Robin Perry
05 Sep 19
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Timor-Leste’s future still shadowed by the past

There are 100,000 people tonight in Tasi Tolu, a wide, flat, dusty expanse on Dili’s outskirts, near the capital’s western bus terminal, with enough space to fit all those coming to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Timor-Leste’s vote for independence. Inside, grandstand seating is set up
By Sophie Raynor
02 Sep 19
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Timor-Leste, 20 years on

This month, Timor-Leste is in a festive mood, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its independence referendum. On 30 August 1999, the people of Timor-Leste cast their ballots in a United Nations–administered popular consultation to determine the fate of the country, with 78.5% voting to separate
By Mica Barreto Soares
16 Aug 19
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Timor-Leste’s forgotten Chinese

There used to be thousands of them – the children of the children of the first Chinese people to migrate to Timor-Leste in the 1800s and their indigenous Timorese husbands and wives. But conflict, rejection, and the promise of a better life abroad saw the dispersed Hakka-descended Chinese-
By Sophie Raynor
16 Jan 19
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Timor and Australia: a new chapter or a stalemate?

Last week, an Australian leader visited Dili for the first time in five years. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop spent 36 hours in Timor-Leste as part of a four-country diplomatic trip around Southeast Asia. The dispute over whether a pipeline should be built to transfer Greater Sunrise gas to the
By Bec Strating
07 Aug 18
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Julie Bishop’s new Timor-Leste chapter

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop arrived in Timor-Leste at the weekend, on her first official visit and the first by any Australian minister to the country in five years. Bishop arrived with the promise of a beatific “new chapter” in the two nations’ previously fraught
By Sophie Raynor
30 Jul 18
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A new path to dispute settlement

On 9 May, the United Nations Conciliation Commission (UNCC) concerning the Timor Sea dispute between Timor-Leste and Australia released its final report. This was the first time such a form of compulsory dispute resolution had been invoked, with the proceedings initiated in April the year
By Bec Strating, Clive Schofield
12 Jun 18
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Timor-Leste election: the generation gap

After ten months of political gridlock and one dissolved parliament, Saturday’s decisive parliamentary election result represents one kind of victory for Timor-Leste’s fledgling democracy. Winning an unusual outright majority of 34 seats in the 65-seat parliament, experienced coalition Change
By Sophie Raynor
17 May 18
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Timor Trough: the rumpled carpet on the sea floor

John Carlson says Australia approached maritime boundary negotiations with Indonesia in 1972 by arguing the Timor Trough was the meeting point of two geologically distinct continental shelves at a subduction zone. But the trough does not constitute two separate shelves any more than a rumpled carpet
By Brendan Duffy
29 Mar 18
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Timor Gap: a boundary, yet disputes linger

The signing of a treaty between Australia and Timor-Leste marking maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea represents a huge step forward in resolving the two states’ long-standing disputes. The conciliation process that led to the agreement was groundbreaking for being the first time such an approach
By Clive Schofield, Bec Strating
07 Mar 18
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The Timor Trough – two separate shelves

In her article “How Australia crossed a line in the Timor Sea”, Kim McGrath claims that Australia had evidence supporting Indonesia’s claim in maritime boundary negotiations – but buried it. This serious charge is not substantiated by the 1970 report from then Bureau of
By John Carlson
06 Mar 18
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How Australia crossed a line in the Timor Sea

The UN Compulsory Conciliation between Australia and Timor-Leste, which aims to set a boundary in the Timor Sea, appears to be inching towards resolution, with details emerging in the Portuguese media last week of a deal involving a median line boundary and a revenue-sharing arrangement
By Kim McGrath
16 Feb 18
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Timor Sea dispute: progress and prospects as a deal emerges

Throughout the course of 2017, Australia and Timor-Leste have negotiated in international conciliation proceedings to resolve their protracted disagreements over hydrocarbon resources and maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea. So far, we know the two countries have reached an agreement on maritime
By Bec Strating
22 Nov 17
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Review: Shameful lust for riches under the Timor Sea

Laying bare the greed for petroleum resources that has steered five decades of Australian policy regarding East Timor, Kim McGrath’s Crossing the Line is a masterfully written and researched piece of scholarship. Australian politicians and policy makers have generally escaped significant public
By Michael Rose
15 Nov 17
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Timor-Leste: A return to belligerent democracy?

In 2015, not long after the formation of the unprecedented national unity government between Timor-Leste's two largest parties, CNRT and Fretilin, senior CNRT Minister Agio Pereira commented on the country's remarkable transition from 'belligerent democracy' to a new era of consensus democracy. In
By Michael Leach
23 Oct 17
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Timor-Leste heads for minority government

Almost two months since the 22 July election, a new government will be sworn in today in Dili. Fretilin, with 23 seats in parliament, has joined with Democratic Party (PD) which has seven representatives, giving them 30 seats in the 65-seat house. As recently as Wednesday* a majority government was
By Michael Leach
15 Sep 17
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The Timor Sea breakthrough

Last Friday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced a 'breakthrough' in maritime boundary conciliation proceedings between Timor-Leste and Australia. The two parties 'reached an agreement on the central elements of a maritime boundary delimitation' and on a 'Special Regime'
By Bec Strating
05 Sep 17
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Timor-Leste’s critical window on ASEAN

Amid the celebrations of ASEAN's 50th birthday last week, the question of whether Timor-Leste will soon be granted full membership lingers. ASEAN membership is the cornerstone of Timor-Leste's foreign policy. In March 2011, Timor-Leste applied for formal membership to ASEAN while Indonesia was
By Bec Strating
17 Aug 17
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Timor-Leste elections a significant milestone

For a nation that only won its hard-fought battle for independence 15 years ago, Timor Leste has travelled a long way fast. On 22 July, the Timorese people voted for the fourth time in parliamentary elections to elect the 65 members of the National Parliament. As the first election administered
By Georgina Downer
27 Jul 17
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