On The Australia And Timor - Leste On Maritime Delimitation In The Timor Sea Resources And The Settlement Of Disputes

Maritime delimitation and resources dispute has always been a hotspot in the field of international relations and international law. The Timor Sea dispute between Australia and East Timor is a typical marine territorial dispute featured by struggling for control of valuable oil and gas resources. The dispute attracted global attention by its specialty and complexity reflected in two aspects: it is interlinked with the political evolution of the East Timor and the material disparity between the two bargaining power could hardly be more extreme.The Timor Sea dispute between Australia and East Timor was peacefully settled through diplomatic negotiation. It had extended over a period of six years with an extraordinarily difficult process. The two sides finally agreed to set aside the boundary delimitation and jointly develop the oil and gas resources in the JPDA and signed treaties to provide a firm legal foundation for the development activities. The negotiation outcome resulted from comprises made by the two sides and satisfied both to some extent. However, it is not difficult to find that although the two states maintained a prominent material disparity and the East Timor strongly depended on the foreign aid provided by Australia, the Australia took a passive position during the negotiation and the outcome moved greatly beyond Australia's preferred position.The paper is trying to make a detailed analysis of the Timor Sea dispute. Through a study of how the dispute was settled during four periods, the paper will draw a conclusion on how the outcome have been determined and provide a reasonable explanation for the compromise behavior of the two sides.