Australia says tribunal has no jurisdiction in maritime border row with East Timor

East Timor, one of the world’s most impoverished nations, is seeking to draw a border midway between the two countries that would give it more of the sea bed than under current agreements with its wealthy neighbour to the south

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A boundary dispute between East Timor and Australia centres on a demand from East Timor that the border of the oil field between the two countries be redrawn. File photo: AFP

Published: 8:20pm, 29 Aug 2016Updated: 11:03pm, 29 Aug 2016

East Timor on Monday urged an international tribunal to help resolve a dispute with Australia over a maritime border which cuts through lucrative oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea.

Australia has said it would argue the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) based in The Hague - the world’s oldest international tribunal - has no jurisdiction in the row.

But Dili said it “regretted” Canberra’s stand, and urged the five-judge bench in an opening public session to find if the court could take up the case and eventually rule.

“It is a national priority to secure our sovereign rights over the surrounding seas and the resources that lie therein, which hold the promise of a transformational development for our country,” representative Elisabeth Exposto told the court.

East Timor, a tiny nation which gained independence from Indonesian occupation in 2002, is impoverished and depends heavily on oil and gas exports.