East Timor: Xanana Gusmao given hero’s welcome at airport after striking sea border deal with Australia

Thousands of East Timorese lined the road to the capital’s international airport to cheer returning independence hero Xanana Gusmao for leading negotiations that settled the sea border between the impoverished country and Australia.

Gusmao, whose party lost power in parliamentary elections last year, was greeted at Dili’s tiny airport Sunday with cries of “Viva Xanana Gusmao”.

He’d been abroad for the previous eight months leading the final stretch of maritime border talks.

Australia and East Timor, one of the world’s youngest nations, signed a historic treaty Tuesday drawing their maritime boundary and dividing oil and gas deposits under the seabed, ending years of bitter wrangling and opening a new chapter in relations.

For East Timor, a half-island nation of 1.5 million people who are among the poorest in the world, the treaty was a crucial economic lifeline.

“We have to hold tight to our wealth,” Gusmao said.